Who is your bitcoin hero (excluding Satoshi)?

[aoluain]

Seeing as Michael Saylor is on the list, I'll back him, I  follow him on Twitter and get
numerous tweets per day from him.

I really admire him, he is a Bitcoiner on another level. He transformed himself from a
critic to pretty much all in.

Really everyone who has been nominated already are truly worthy along with all the Bitcoin
developers.

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[Pmalek]

I have already posted here but seeing as no one has mentioned Gavin Andresen yet, I thought his name should be mentioned in this thread. Let's not forget that he ran his own faucet back in 2010 and gave away 5 BTC per claim.
In 2014, one Bitcointalk user discovered a bug that made it possible to expose private keys for certain addresses. Many of the addresses originated from Blockchain.info. Long story short, he swept the coins from the vulnerable addresses to his own, informed the community, and got in touch with the owners to return their Bitcoin. He didn't want the problem to be discovered by someone with bad intentions. He saved over 870 Bitcoin be transferring them out from vulnerable addresses.

[TheNineClub]

I would say that the people I admire are all the early developers, but also people working on BTC at this period. Also, I wouldn't say there were early investors, but rather people that wanted to be a part of something new and exciting, a disruptive technology, and didn't care about it like today's investors do. Those are the people we need to thank for the distance we traveled with this.

[Agbe]

Really I can't say anything for now because I am still learning as it is I do not have any mentor on bitcoin but struggling on my own to learn and know more about it. But if I will select bitcoin Heroes, or Heroins I will say, the first OG or the pioneers are the best to select. If they are still alive, or here in this forum. Although most bitcoin users have their heroes which most of them have already mentioned above. Since you have excluded Satoshi from the hero list I do not know again but I still take him because he brought bitcoin to the world space for everyone to hear and use. It was even in this forum that I heard the name Satoshi. Please don't be offended. Because I was not having the time interested but was having a very small knowledge on Crypto. It was only the name from the seminar. Nothing more, that was where the the whole thing ended.

But if it is in this forum I might have two or 3 persons that are always correcting me, educate me and tell me what to do.

[glendall]

my hero is a friend who first introduced me to bitcoin, because I believe everyone has their own hero and perception, where as you mentioned is a hero for those who know bitcoin and how many times have you been to a party not to me
but it doesn't rule out that theymos is also my hero because he who gave space here provides a lot of info about bitcoin and other alts

[Renampun]

my hero is a friend who first introduced me to bitcoin, because I believe everyone has their own hero and perception, where as you mentioned is a hero for those who know bitcoin and how many times have you been to a party not to me
but it doesn't rule out that theymos is also my hero because he who gave space here provides a lot of info about bitcoin and other alts

same with me, my friend who introduced bitcoin and this forum to me is my hero...

even though "friends" are not in the pool but I still make my friends the people who have contributed greatly to introducing bitcoin to me, besides that theymos and all the moderators who continue to maintain this forum are real heroes who live for bitcoin, thank you all for all of you, especially satoshi.

[D ltr]

Who is your bitcoin hero?

Who do you look up to in this space, or think is the most amazing person within the bitcoin world?

I think Sirius - Martti Malmi is mine. Here's a kid still in college who risked for a venture that he wouldn't know would work. He was willing to be open with others across the world. He lost bitcoin trying to be honest, as far as I can tell, with others when running the first exchanges.

============================
Heroes nominated in these threads (actively edited):
===
Hal Finney
Sirius / Martti Malmi
Laszlo Hanyecz
Theymos
Andreas Antonopoulos
Michael Saylor

Early investors, believers, 0Gs
The community
This forum
Friends and neighbors who introduce bitcoin

I got to know bitcoin from an advertisement on one of the platforms and headed to this forum to find out info about bitcoin itself

[aoluain]

my hero is a friend who first introduced me to bitcoin, because I believe everyone has their own hero and perception, where as you mentioned is a hero for those who know bitcoin and how many times have you been to a party not to me
but it doesn't rule out that theymos is also my hero because he who gave space here provides a lot of info about bitcoin and other alts

In a lot of cases particularly from pre 2019, friends have been influential in introducing
others to Bitcoin especially as these introductions have proved very good advice.

I want to add "Family" to the list, My Brother ^{who is a serious Bitcoiner} introduced me
to Bitcoin back in December 2016.

He is the unrecognised equivalent to Michael Saylor, if anyone asks him about Bitcoin
they better be prepared to have their ears burned!

_{he had an account here a few years ago but is not active}

[KaliLinux]

Who is your bitcoin hero?

Who do you look up to in this space, or think is the most amazing person within the bitcoin world?

I think Sirius - Martti Malmi is mine. Here's a kid still in college who risked for a venture that he wouldn't know would work. He was willing to be open with others across the world. He lost bitcoin trying to be honest, as far as I can tell, with others when running the first exchanges.

============================
Heroes nominated in these threads (actively edited):
===
Hal Finney
Sirius / Martti Malmi
Laszlo Hanyecz
Theymos
Andreas Antonopoulos
Michael Saylor

Early investors, believers, 0Gs
The community
This forum
Friends and neighbors who introduce bitcoin

For me, I will give it to all of them that have contributed one way or the other to make and kept this technology moving when most people back then didn't believe in it but they persisted. Looking back at Bitcoin History, all mentioned here made their mark in the space and it will be difficult not to recognize that, and @aoluain  is also right, ^{what about my colleague that was the first person to introduce Bitcoin to me?} They are all Heros in my view.


 

[Asiska02]

The true heroes of bitcoin are those people who have control of the large amount of bitcoins and didn’t allow it to be centralized. Making sure the future of bitcoin is saved today and for years to come.. There are many of them who are anonymously doing this from the knowledge of the public. The true heroes don’t show off, my respect to all of them.

[Zlantann]

The early bitcoiners that believed in Bitcoin when nobody believed in it are the main heroes. I can just visualize the mockery by friends, family and colleagues. People might even call them lunatics. But they were courageous and not totally driven by financial rewards. My heroes are also those people in this forum that is always willing to teach, correct and encourage me to be a better member of this community. They might not be well known but everyday they make indelible marks of impact in my life.

[Kakmakr]

Well, my first person is Laszlo Hanyecz ...because he took the first step to buy something (2 x pizzas) with Bitcoin and this has opened people's eyes to see that Bitcoin can be used as a payment option. Some people criticize him and mock him for spending millions on 2 pizzas, but the question is.. would those coins be that valuable if he did not take that first step?

The second person must be Andreas Antonopoulos, because he almost bankrupted himself to spread the word about Bitcoin. He has a wealth of knowledge on the subject and he can make very strong arguments. The guy had the balls to stand in from of the Canadian government to explain a technology to them.. that other governments frowned on at the time.

Both of these guys challenged the norm and what the governments perceived as being illegal.... so we should honor their bravery and courage.  

[Chato1977]

Who is your bitcoin hero?

Who do you look up to in this space, or think is the most amazing person within the bitcoin world?

I think Sirius - Martti Malmi is mine. Here's a kid still in college who risked for a venture that he wouldn't know would work. He was willing to be open with others across the world. He lost bitcoin trying to be honest, as far as I can tell, with others when running the first exchanges.

============================
Heroes nominated in these threads (actively edited):
===
Hal Finney
Sirius / Martti Malmi
Laszlo Hanyecz
Theymos
Andreas Antonopoulos
Michael Saylor

Early investors, believers, 0Gs
The community
This forum
Friends and neighbors who introduce bitcoin

I've learned everything  about Bitcoin here in Forum so if there is someone that to be my Hero? then it is Theymos because he have managed this forum the best he could and that brings us all to understand Bitcoin the deepest that we could.
so Theymos is what i treat as my Hero .

[Lucius]

Martti might be around to speak for himself, but possibly not. I can imagine that he left the community after being burned. It's only a guess from my end... I hope that we can one day hear more about what he'd like to say because I'm certain it's very interesting and more in depth than what we've heard so far.

Some of the answers to your questions exist on another forum, and they are allegedly part of an interview that Martti Malmi gave back in 2015, and some questions also touch on this forum and why he decided not to be active anymore. I will not post a link to that forum because it is part of Roger Ver propaganda - although I am personally surprised that Martti has been active in various places and still avoids this forum.

Michael Saylor is my Hero though...

Seeing as Michael Saylor is on the list, I'll back him...

Saylor supports Bitcoin, but does it support it in the right way? Bitcoin is conceived as a decentralized digital cryptocurrency - not as a store of value. 100 people who would think like him would have together 10 million Bitcoins in their possession who would sit in cold wallets, which would be good for those who want to profit and forget that Bitcoin exists.

I have already posted here but seeing as no one has mentioned Gavin Andresen yet, I thought his name should be mentioned in this thread.

If he has done something good in the past, then he threw it all in the mud when he supported Faketoshi in his senseless efforts to prove he was Satoshi. For someone who has worked with Satoshi, it’s really weird that he can believe such nonsense. I place him in the same category as Roger Ver, and these are ordinary Judas who never understood the vision Satoshi had.

[uchegod-21]

I believe you do not mean bitcoin hero in this forum, because I saw that award during the last voting of the community award organised by Icopress. If you are talking about bitcoin generally, there are alot of heroes which Satoshi is the number one. According to your question, apart from Satoshi I have another person who is my hero, I don't know his name but I know his story.
That developer that Satoshi was communicating with via email during the creation of bitcoin. What is his name please?

[Pmalek]

If he has done something good in the past, then he threw it all in the mud when he supported Faketoshi in his senseless efforts to prove he was Satoshi. For someone who has worked with Satoshi, it’s really weird that he can believe such nonsense. I place him in the same category as Roger Ver, and these are ordinary Judas who never understood the vision Satoshi had.

I have to admit that I haven't followed most of those stories concerning craig wrong, I mean wright, so I am not sure what Gavin's part in all that was. I assume now that he believes craig to be satoshi or what happened exactly?

[Lucius]

I assume now that he believes craig to be satoshi or what happened exactly?

It's an old story that has been mentioned many times on the forum, so although GA later distanced itself from his statements, it's still amazing that he even concluded that CW is really Satoshi. For some he has lost his credibility since he went to the hornet's nest, for others it happened in 2016 - for me personally he became completely irrelevant in the whole Bitcoin story - and it will never be clear to me why Satoshi ever let him work with him at all.

Here I am referring primarily to GA’s personality in the sense that he was too curious about who Satoshi was, as well as that he criticized him in the sense that he made too many decisions on his own. After all, it doesn't surprise me that Satoshi decided to leave.

May 2, 2016
Satoshi

I believe Craig Steven Wright is the person who invented Bitcoin.

I was flown to London to meet Dr. Wright a couple of weeks ago, after an initial email conversation convinced me that there was a very good chance he was the same person I’d communicated with in 2010 and early 2011. After spending time with him I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt: Craig Wright is Satoshi.

Part of that time was spent on a careful cryptographic verification of messages signed with keys that only Satoshi should possess. But even before I witnessed the keys signed and then verified on a clean computer that could not have been tampered with, I was reasonably certain I was sitting next to the Father of Bitcoin.

During our meeting, I saw the brilliant, opinionated, focused, generous – and privacy-seeking – person that matches the Satoshi I worked with six years ago. And he cleared up a lot of mysteries, including why he disappeared when he did and what he’s been busy with since 2011. But I’m going to respect Dr. Wright’s privacy, and let him decide how much of that story he shares with the world.

We love to create heroes – but also seem to love hating them if they don’t live up to some unattainable ideal. It would be better if Satoshi Nakamoto was the codename for an NSA project, or an artificial intelligence sent from the future to advance our primitive money. He is not, he is an imperfect human being just like the rest of us. I hope he manages to mostly ignore the storm that his announcement will create, and keep doing what he loves– learning and research and innovating.

I am very happy to be able to say I shook his hand and thanked him for giving Bitcoin to the world.

[Pmalek]

<Snip>

Wow! This is the first time I am reading Gavin's blog post about craig being satoshi. I would really like to know what kind of proof he is talking about and what messages faketoshi was able to sign and with what keys? It's true that it happened in 2016 and the drama with craig's failure to provide the required cryptographic proof happened in 2020/2021. But it's still surprising that craig showed him enough for Gavin to believe he is satoshi. One can only hope Gavin has changed his mind entirely and doesn't still believe such nonsense.  

[kaggie]

May 2, 2016
It would be better if Satoshi Nakamoto was the codename for an NSA project, or an artificial intelligence sent from the future to advance our primitive money.

...

I would really like to know what kind of proof he is talking about and what messages faketoshi was able to sign and with what keys?

At that point, it seemed to some of those in the room that Andresen’s body language had changed; he seemed slightly awed by the situation. He reached over to his bag and took out a brand-new USB stick and removed it from its wrapping. He took out his own laptop. ‘I need to test it on my computer,’ he said. He added that he was convinced, but that if people were going to ask him, he had to be able to say that he’d checked it independently. He pointed to Wright’s laptop and said it could all have been pre-loaded on there, though he knew that was unlikely. But he had to check on his own computer and then they would be done. He said the key could be used on his laptop and saved to the memory stick and that Wright could keep it. But for his own peace of mind, and for due diligence, so that there wasn’t a chance of fraud, he had to see it work on a computer that wasn’t Wright’s own.

Wright suddenly baulked. He had just signed a message to Andresen from Satoshi, he said, and had demonstrated his complete familiarity with their correspondence, but, in his mind, what Andresen was now asking for was of a different order. ‘I had vowed,’ Wright told me, ‘never to show the key publicly and never to let it go. I trusted Andresen, but I couldn’t do it.’
 

https://mylegacykit.medium.com/the-craig-wright-may-2016-signing-sessions-debacle-in-full-context-338e2b316310
No key had to be transferred to Andresen's laptop for him to verify with independent software, yet they didn't do that.
A key is used for signing but is unnecessary for verification. That's the point.

-
Different topic but for completion, I will quote Martti Malmi:

Hello everyone!

For an introduction:

    An excerpt from Nathaniel Popper's "Digital Gold"
    An introductory blog post I wrote to a company blog in 2013

To put it briefly: Back in 2009 when I was studying computer science at Helsinki University of Technology, I was looking into the possibility of decentralized monetary systems as a means of actually changing the world for the better - giving people the control over their own life and money. Bitcoin, recently published, was the only completely decentralized and feasible option out there. I emailed Satoshi offering my help and ended up working on bitcoin.org, setting up the Bitcointalk forums and also contributing to the Bitcoin release 0.2.

In late 2009 I made the first BTC <-> USD transaction with NewLibertyStandard to help him get started with his Bitcoin exchange. I sold 5,050 BTC for 5.05 USD on PayPal. I ran my own bitcoinexchange.com for a little while, exchanging BTC for SEPA bank payments. In 2011, I helped Jed McCaleb and later Mark Karpeles with their banking in Europe.

I gradually withdrew from the Bitcoin community. I found the atmosphere less inspiring and exciting than in the early days, when none of Bitcoin's potential had realized yet. On the other hand, by then Bitcoin already had lots of skilled coders who would keep it running, whereas some other projects didn't.

In 2013 I started working on the identity & reputation project Identifi (interview). Currently, I'm a co-founder at the startup MONI, with which I'm hoping to advance Identifi and distributed payment networks such as Stellar.

Thanks for having me, looking forward to answering your questions!

-Martti Malmi (sirius)

https://forum.bitcoin.com/ama-ask-me-anything/i-m-martti-malmi-early-bitcoin-developer-and-the-original-founder-of-the-bitcointalk-org-forums-ama-t2770.html

I liked the forum better back when it was possible to read all the new posts every day and when there was less drama going on. These days I'm following Bitcoin mostly on Facebook and Twitter.

1. I don't know him personally. He was made a forum and server admin back in 2010 because he had proven himself trustworthy and was able to spend time working on it. Bitcoin.org and bitcointalk.org domains are owned by someone trusted by Satoshi, while theymos has management rights. I resigned from the management, because I'm not active in the community and don't want to be involved in the politics. I don't want to say too much about the debate, as I'm not that familiar with all that's going on.

We never talked about anything personal and it took me long to realize Satoshi was a pseudonym. The whitepaper and the code spoke for themselves, regardless of the person behind them.

^I find this amusing. I wonder when he realized, and what was the trigger?

I have nothing bad to say about the people in the early days. I liked the spirit back then. People saw Bitcoin as an interesting project and invested their time into it without certainty of what it would become.

Aww.

[BOAEDAN]

In my personal opinion, the bitcoin hero besides Satoshi is Andreas Antonopoulos, but there are also many other heroes, they mostly wear robes, but I really salute the friend who introduced me to bitcoin, maybe for me he is my true hero, and the other true heroes are people who hold bitcoin, and people who have a strong mentality, whatever happens they are never afraid and keep investing in bitcoin.