12 Years Later, Bitcoin Remembers the Man Who Got There First

[The Founding Titan]

2 days ago!

Twelve years ago today, cryptographer Hal Finney died after a five-year fight with ALS, six years after he became the first person on Earth to receive a bitcoin transaction. His story is still one of the strangest, most human threads running through Bitcoin’s history.

https://news.bitcoin.com/crypto-news/hal-finney-12-years-bitcoin-first-transaction/

[SilverCryptoBullet]

2 days ago!

Twelve years ago today, cryptographer Hal Finney died after a five-year fight with ALS, six years after he became the first person on Earth to receive a bitcoin transaction. His story is still one of the strangest, most human threads running through Bitcoin’s history.

https://news.bitcoin.com/crypto-news/hal-finney-12-years-bitcoin-first-transaction/

About Hal Finney, there are more stories to read and know more, including his own story.

Bitcoin and me (Hal Finney). This story is inspiration and at the end, there is a note from Hal Finney about Bitcoin inheritance to his wife and children.
Hal Finney was not Satoshi Nakamoto.
Archive of emails between Hal Finney and Satoshi Nakamoto.
https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/finneynakamotoemails.pdf

RIP Hal Finney, a true legend.

[hd49728]

Hal Finney has a famous tweet too: Running Bitcoin.
https://x.com/halfin/status/1110302988

It's his announcement of running a Bitcoin node, and you can do that to support Bitcoin blockchain decentralization too.
[Guide] How to run a Bitcoin Core full node for under 50 bucks!
[GUIDE] The simplest Full Node guide ever.
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/beginners/nodes
https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/full-node.html

[MArsland]

Hal Finney has a famous tweet too: Running Bitcoin.
https://x.com/halfin/status/1110302988

After this legendary tweet, 24 hours later Satoshi sent 10 BTC to Hall's wallet as a form of testing and became the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction. There are many amazing stories from Hall, especially when diagnosed with ALS. the biggest twist is that his body is still at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. I'm curious and have a big question, is it true that one day he will come back to life?



Rip Hall

[Agbe]

Hal Finney: As a first man to receive bitcoin from Satoshi Nakamoto, the community needs to celebrate him because he was one of the pioneers to brought bitcoin to reality. And from history, he was a fighter for digital privacy and love anonymity. From the the historically, he must had helped Satoshi Nakamoto from one way or the other because he reported some bugs after checking out the software and tested it.

RIP pa. Hal Finney.

[BIT-BENDER]

Hal Finney: As a first man to receive bitcoin from Satoshi Nakamoto, the community needs to celebrate him because he was one of the pioneers to brought bitcoin to reality. And from history, he was a fighter for digital privacy and love anonymity. From the the historically, he must had helped Satoshi Nakamoto from one way or the other because he reported some bugs after checking out the software and tested it.

RIP pa. Hal Finney.

Yes all of this are notable attributes of Hal Finney but not adding his contribution to the software world not just being the first person to receive Bitcoin undermines Hal Finney.
You all need to know that Hal Finney was very successful in console game creations and other software related attributions.
He actually was very influential in his field of work and also created huge impact in Bitcoin development too.

[Donneski]

Hal Finney... A name that'll always feature in any conversation about the early days of Bitcoin.

Hal Finney didn't just receive the first transaction, he was very instrumental to the success of the Bitcoin project as he also took his time to run the software, test it and give feedback when others were still doubtful of what could become of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is now a success, one of the greatest digital innovations in global finance because someone like Hal Finney made the early sacrifice.

RIP Hal.

[Dreadboost]

Hal Finney: As a first man to receive bitcoin from Satoshi Nakamoto, the community needs to celebrate him because he was one of the pioneers to brought bitcoin to reality. And from history, he was a fighter for digital privacy and love anonymity. From the the historically, he must had helped Satoshi Nakamoto from one way or the other because he reported some bugs after checking out the software and tested it.

RIP pa. Hal Finney.

Legends don’t live long to see the changes they have made in their little way. If they were alive who knows we will see more from Bitcoin. We are happy to celebrate his death in a special way. Sometimes I go back to the old account managed by this users and found out that the knowledge they had about Bitcoin played a huge impact on the members who witnessed their era on Bitcointalk.

[Donk1]

Well Hal probably saw the potential in Bitcoin even when most people criticized it and that's why I keep saying a technology isn't yet complete until it has served its purpose / offered utility. Still we humans are the ones who will determine if it is worth trusting or not and one way to do that is to take the risk in trying out something new. Bitcoin is where it is today because of people like Hal Finney and no matter what he will always be a part of the growth of Bitcoin from its early stage to where it is now.

 Best to say Hal Finney's curiosity of Bitcoin even with his illness didn't stop him from trying out the technology. And that first 10 coins he tested may have been small back then but still it proved the whole idea of a new payment system. We can always look back into history because his sacrifice is one of the major steps of Bitcoin evolution.. that's all......

[OsaiEmma]

Hal is truly an inspiration to me. His name pops up often whenever I read old Bitcoin stories and all; he's truly a legend. I've read a little about him in this forum, he's such a big motivation—not just for his work on Bitcoin, but also for how he lived. He's the perfect definition of "No excuse is big enough to stop you from doing what you want". Even when battling his sickness he kept showing up. Rest in peace, Hal—you're truly phenomenal, a brilliant mind, a relentless soul, and a true legend.

[PrivacyG]

Rest in peace, Hal.  The most interesting part about his death is that his body remains frozen in a cryopreservation facility with the hope that they will be able to revive him one day in the future.  Here is an interesting read about this,

Thu Aug 28 18:41:54 UTC 2014

I am both sad and happy to tell you that long-time Extropy
Institute/Extropy magazine/Extropy chat list member -- and honored
cypherpunk and Bitcoin pioneer – was declared clinically dead this morning
and is now being cryopreserved.



Hal was diagnosed with ALS five years ago. He made it clear that once he
lost the ability to communicate, he did not want his vital functions
supported any further but should be allowed to cease functioning and
promptly be cryopreserved. Hal and Fran Finney arrived in Scottsdale,
Arizona on Tuesday where he was checked into ICU of a hospital near Alcor.
After administration of drugs to ensure no consciousness, his ventilator
was removed. Although the doctors expected all breathing to cease within an
hour, Hal’s body kept going until shortly before 9:00 am this morning,
August 28, 2014.



Immediately after pronouncement of legal death, Alcor’s standby team went
into action, restoring circulation, ventilation, administering an array of
medications, and initiating external cooling. Surgery is currently underway
to enable us to replace Hal’s blood and interstitial fluids with
cryoprotectant. Once perfusion is finished we will be able to plunge Hal’s
temperature down past the freezing point without any significant ice
formation. Once he is down to around -110 degC we will slow cooling and
take a couple more days to reach the final storage temperature of -196
degC. After that, Hal will be placed in long-term storage and cared for
until the day when repair and revival may be possible.



Hal’s wife, Fran (also an Alcor member) has stayed by Hal’s side throughout
and is observing our procedures firsthand.



Since Hal is open about his Alcor membership and said that he would be
happy for us to tell people about his choice if it might be good for
cryonics, we will be issuing a press release, as well as writing something
more extensive for *Cryonics* magazine and elsewhere. If you have thoughts
on Hal and his life and work, please send them to me.



Hal, I know I speak for many when I say that I look forward to speaking to
you again sometime in the future and to throwing a party in honor of your
revival.



--Max

--
Max More, PhD
Strategic Philosopher
Co-editor, *The Transhumanist Reader*

Source is https://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/2014-August/082585.html

[Italian Panic]

Hal Finney had grasped the profound significance of Bitcoin; he was a person of far above average intelligence. He understood that Bitcoin would be the future of global finance, but even more importantly, he realized that decentralization would be the fundamental tool for personal freedom, freeing oneself from third parties would empower individuals with the means to cast off the chains that oppress them. I hope he is happy with the direction we are taking.

[macson]

This man is a legend. Besides Satoshi, he is the person I respect the most in Bitcoin. He contributed so much to Bitcoin in its early days, and he was even able to see Bitcoin’s potential to become so successful in the future.

I bet he’s up there, very happy to see Bitcoin grow into what it is today.

RIP, legend. You will always be remembered.

[JimaGod]

Hal Finney: As a first man to receive bitcoin from Satoshi Nakamoto, the community needs to celebrate him because he was one of the pioneers to brought bitcoin to reality. And from history, he was a fighter for digital privacy and love anonymity. From the the historically, he must had helped Satoshi Nakamoto from one way or the other because he reported some bugs after checking out the software and tested it.

RIP pa. Hal Finney.

Hal Finney should be recognized and a date ought to be fixed in remembrance for him because this is one of the persons that believed Bitcoin and bought it, among those that help strengthen Bitcoin ecosystem although that there are other contributions he would have made but it doesn't cancel him out. Hal Finney did his possible best and today, Bitcoin have gone to a massive extent, we get to know the full potential of Bitcoin and we've started to trade.

Satoshi Nakamoto also deserves his flowers because he's one of a kind. A genius and a legend we're talking about and till today, he remained anonymous and nobody got an idea of his face let alone his personality. I would say Satoshi Nakamoto did a great job to keep himself and his team discreet all these years.

[Alphakilo]

Hal Finney had grasped the profound significance of Bitcoin; he was a person of far above average intelligence. He understood that Bitcoin would be the future of global finance, but even more importantly, he realized that decentralization would be the fundamental tool for personal freedom, freeing oneself from third parties would empower individuals with the means to cast off the chains that oppress them. I hope he is happy with the direction we are taking.

He definitely came, saw and went down in history as one who conquered the decentralized Bitcoin system by endorsement of his belief in  Bitcoin as the first person to accept a transaction in Bitcoin. While so many didn't know about this new innovation, some doubted and others criticized, but he believed.
Am sure he would be proud to have reckoned with an innovation that is a major asset and hedge against inflation in the world while whales, countries, sharks and retail investors are in on their own pound of flesh too.

[jossiel]

Strange as that article may seems to describe his story because he's likely satoshi himself. Hal really deserve the love from the community.

Rest in peace, Hal. I may not be able to reach the time when he was still active but his legacy goes on. And not surprising that each and everyone from the community recognizes his contribution and role on bitcoin's success.

[hd49728]

After this legendary tweet, 24 hours later Satoshi sent 10 BTC to Hall's wallet as a form of testing and became the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction. There are many amazing stories from Hall, especially when diagnosed with ALS. the biggest twist is that his body is still at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. I'm curious and have a big question, is it true that one day he will come back to life?

Exactly and in the story wrote by Hal Finney, he mentioned about that transaction with a little bit more details too.

More information about Hal Finney as well as the first Bitcoin peer to peer transaction
Hal Finney’s Bitcoin debug log gets its first forensic deep dive, and the findings rewrite early network history.
Hal Finney.
The first bitcoin transaction?
Payment No. 1: A Closer Look at the Very First Bitcoin Transfer

[henmark]

the biggest twist is that his body is still at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. I'm curious and have a big question, is it true that one day he will come back to life?

It's just a theory, but it's basically not possible for them to bring him back to life. They preserved his body in the hope that maybe in the future, there will be a cure for the illness and there might be a chance for his revival, but it's real life, it's not a game where if a solution is found, you can revive someone from their death. A cure being found will not, in any way, make it possible to bring back dead body to life who died because of that specific illness, because once your soul leaves the body, and you stop breathing, things are not going to start working back after years even if your body is saved from getting decomposed.

Hal Finney will be remembered throughout the future, as long as Bitcoin is around and known, and as long as people keep remembering Bitcoin, Hal Finney will be the person after Satoshi who will be recalled and remembered by those who know what a role he played in the early development of Bitcoin and spreading the word about it as one of the very first users of the technology. There will be theories and doubts, and some people might say that he was actually Satoshi himself, but things such as those don't matter, what matters is his contributions towards Bitcoin.

As they say, legends never die.

[hugeblack]

The story of Hal Finney is one of the most influential stories in the history of Bitcoin, especially in the forum. Many are unaware that he tried to create a cryptocurrency called RPOW, and the last four years of his life were the most influential.

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

The story of Hal Finney is one of the most influential stories in the history of Bitcoin, especially in the forum. Many are unaware that he tried to create a cryptocurrency called RPOW, and the last four years of his life were the most influential.

Hal Finney got the ALS and died because of that disease but his legacy is not only limited to Bitcoin as there are many Running Bitcoin Challenges over years.

Like this 2025 Running Bitcoin Challenge in the ALS network.
https://alsnetwork.org/2025-running-bitcoin-challenge/

His wife, Fran Finney has her contributions too.
https://x.com/halfin/status/1742589362997702666

Hi everyone, Fran Finney, wife of Hal Finney, here. I’d like to share exciting news with you. Today the 3rd Running Bitcoin Challenge (@RunningBTC21k) is starting again.
 
Join us at runningbitcoin.us & let's heal ALS!
 
RunningBitcoinChallenge 1/4