Bitcoin enthusiasts remember Hal Finney as the first to receive a BTC transaction.
Besides this, Finney is also remembered for his iconic two-word post on Twitter (now X), “Running Bitcoin.”
The tweet he posted in January, 2009, has become a celebrated moment in Bitcoin history.
Finney’s Early Days With Bitcoin
For clarity, Hal Finney was a computer scientist renowned for his work on cryptographic advancements.
The famous scientist battled Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) with positivity and excelled in his career. As an early adopter of Bitcoin, his famous quote on the asset came seven days after Satoshi Nakamoto launched BTC.
Finney took to Twitter to announce he had fired up a Bitcoin node with those iconic words.
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The scientist projected Bitcoin as a digital asset to the global audience. Two days later, Satoshi sent Hal Finney the first Bitcoin transaction.
At the time, exactly 16 years ago, Bitcoin’s price was $0 as it had no monetary value and was still unknown globally.
Despite this, Finney believed in the project and predicted that if BTC became a global payment system, its value would reach astronomical levels.
According to him, Bitcoin’s worth should equal the total value of all the wealth in the world.
Finney also put a price of $10 million on Bitcoin, emphasizing how strongly he felt about the digital asset.
Hal Finney did not live to see Bitcoin record the staggering figures it boasts of today. He died in August 2014 as he succumbed to ALS.
Finney’s wife organizes an annual half-marathon in his memory for the battle with ALS.
However, in the year he died, BTC hit an all-time high (ATH) of $1,042, a remarkable feat within 5 years given that the assets climbed from $0. At his death, BTC exchanged hands for about $589.
Hal Finney’s Contributions to Bitcoin Development
Although Hal Finney only lived to experience five years of Bitcoin, his contribution in the early days was crucial to its development.
Notably, he provided both a technical and a visionary perspective, which helped shape the technology and help it evolve to its present level.
As a cryptographic scientist, Finney contributed to Bitcoin’s software development and early improvement.
Additionally, he worked on debugging and refining the code that powers Bitcoin. This proved critical to stabilizing the network during its early days.
As a respected voice in the cryptographic community, Hal Finney leveraged this to advocate for the potential of Bitcoin.
He promoted BTC as a decentralized digital currency, and his enthusiasm inspired others in the community to pursue the project.
Bitcoin’s Evolution and Legacy
Sixteen years after that first tweet, Bitcoin grew from $0 to an ATH of $108,268 on December 17, 2024.
Bitcoin has grown to approximately $2 trillion as a digital asset with the potential to do greater numbers.
Bitcoin, which started as a retail investment asset, has gained global attention, and institutional players are gaining exposure.
Since the approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January 2024, many investors have embraced the coin, pushing it past $100 billion in assets in its first year.
As of this writing, the BTC price changed hands at $94,375.91. The coin remains resilient in its push to reclaim the historic $100,000 level.
Although the price remains far from the $10 million Hal Finney predicted, analysts agree that Bitcoin’s success is a testament to the contributions of the scientists who believed in Satoshi Nakamoto.
