Harold Thomas Finney II, also known as Hal Finney, was the first person to receive a bitcoin transaction, receiving 10 bitcoins from creator Satoshi Nakamoto on 12 January 2009. Hal Finney was a software developer involved in the early development of bitcoin.
Prior to bitcoin, Hal Finney was a lead developer in console games, and was known as a “cypherpunk” involved in cryptographic activism. Hal Finney’s interest in privacy enhancing technology included development of the first anonymous remailer. His work also included creating the first reusable proof-of-work (PoW) system, a form of cryptographic proof in which one party (“the prover”) proves to others (“the verifiers”) that a certain amount of a specific computational effort has been expended. The PoW system is a fundamental aspect of bitcoin.
One of bitcoin’s most famous tweets is when Hal Finney tweeted, “Running bitcoin”, on 10 January 2009. Receiving more than 100,000 likes and 47,000 retweets by 2024, though many users report their likes disappearing and having to re-like the tweet as a yearly tradition.
In October 2009, Hal Finney announced on the blog, “Less Wrong”, he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and in March 2013 posted on the BitcoinTalk forum that he was essentially paralyzed, but was still continuing to code. Finney was an active runner, and with his wife, Fran, raised money for ALS research with the Santa Barbara International Marathon. Hal Finney passed away on 28 August 2014 due to complications from ALS. His contributions to bitcoin will be forever remembered as one of the most significant technological advances in history.