Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney may not be Satoshi Nakamoto, a new analysis suggests
Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney was competing in a 10-mile race while Satoshi Nakamoto responded to emails and traded in Bitcoin, according to new data.
For years, the late Hal Finney, a computer scientist, was widely credited as the inventor of Bitcoin. Besides Satoshi, he was the first person to download and run Bitcoin software and was the first Bitcoin recipient. Finney, however, She dismissed the theory until it passed in 2014.
Jameson Lopp, a self-proclaimed cypherpunk and founder of Bitcoin protection firm Casa, doesn't believe the speculation either. In an Oct. 21 blog post, Lopp shared new evidence that casts further doubt on the theory.
Race to send an email
Lop's key evidence is from the 10-mile race in Santa Barbara, California on Saturday, April 18, 2009.
According to race information, Finney ran in the “Santa Barbara Running Company Chardonnay 10 Miler and 5K” starting at 8 a.m. PT and finished the race in 78 minutes.
The contest, however, coincides with time-stamped emails between Satoshi and Mike Hearn, one of the original developers of Bitcoin.
Hal Finney was a famous cypherpunk, but he was no Satoshi. Today I present my research to support my claim.https://t.co/gZVQv3QW0B
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) October 21, 2023
Referring to archived emails previously released publicly by Hearn, Loup said, “At this point it was revealed that early Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn was emailing with Satoshi.”
“What can we conclude from all of this? Satoshi sent the email to Mike at 9:16 AM Pacific Time – 2 minutes before Hal crossed the finish line.
“For the hour and 18 minutes that Hal ran, we can be pretty sure he wasn't connected to a computer,” Lopp added.
Bitcoin trading
Meanwhile, Loup highlighted data on the chain that further supports his claim.
Hearn's emails show that in one particular transaction with Nakamoto, Nakamoto sent Hearn 32.5 BTC.
Lopp pointed to this transaction on block 11,408, which occurred at 8:55 a.m. California time – 55 minutes into Finney's race.
Nakamoto confirmed this transaction – another one involving 50 BTC – in an email at 6:16 pm, while the loop repeater Finney was still running.
Health issues
Meanwhile, while Hal Finney's battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) affected his ability to use a keyboard, analysis showed that Satoshi was working on code and posting on various forums.
Lope On August 22, 2010, he quoted an article written by Hal Finney's ex-wife, Fran Finney. Rapid-fire” 120 words per minute to “slow fingerpick.
Bitcoin is better off if Satoshi's identity remains anonymous. Humanity can be attacked politically. Myths stand the test of time.
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) August 12, 2023
At the same time, Nakamoto performed four code checks and wrote 17 posts on various forums between August 14-15, 2010, Lopp said.
Loop observed several differences in Finney's reusable working code compared to the original Bitcoin client code.
RELATED: Bitcoin Pioneer Hal Finney Talks ZK-Proofs in Recorded 25-Year-Old
However, Lopp acknowledges that there may be objections to the so-called evidence.
Hearn published the emails in 2017 — seven years post facto — and it was around the time that other Bitcoiners lost faith in him over a dispute over how Bitcoin was measured.
Finney could have pre-scripted the emails and transactions, or there could have been more than one Satoshi Nakamoto, Lopp said.
However, Lopp argues that the invention of Bitcoin came from a single developer:
“In all the times I've conducted Satoshi, I've never found any evidence of a gang. If it's a team, everyone works on the same sleep schedule, with consistency in coding, emails, and forum posts.
Hal Finney sadly passed away in August 2014 from complications from ALS.
Magazine: The Big Questions: Did the NSA Create Bitcoin?
