Bitcoin pioneer and one of the leading contenders for the role of the creator of the first cryptocurrency, Hal Finney, took part in a 10-mile race at a time when the true Satoshi was answering emails and sending transactions. This was stated by Jameson Lopp, a self-proclaimed cypherpunk and co-founder of Casa, a company that develops Bitcoin storage solutions.
Hal Finney was the first person after Satoshi himself to download the Bitcoin software. He was the first to receive a transaction on the Bitcoin network for 10 BTC from Satoshi Nakamoto. He communicated with Satoshi Nakamoto, worked on the project at its earliest stage of development. At the same time, Finny lived next door to a man whose real life name was Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto. Therefore, many believe that Finney is Satoshi Nakamoto, but Jameson Lopp does not share this opinion.
According to Lopp, Hal Finney competed in the Santa Barbara Running Company Chardonnay 10 Miler & 5K in Santa Barbara, California on April 18, 2009. He started the race at 8 a.m. Pacific time and finished in 78 minutes. However, at the same time, Satoshi corresponded with one of the first Bitcoin developers, Mike Hearn.
“Satoshi sent an email to Mike at 9:16 am Pacific Time, 2 minutes before Hal crossed the finish line. During the hour and 18 minutes that Hal ran, we can be sure that he did not interact with the computer,” Lopp writes.
Lopp also noted transactions in the blockchain that confirm his words. Nakamoto sent Hearn 32.5 BTC at block 11,408, which was mined at 8:55 California time - when Finney had already been running for 55 minutes.
Also supporting this theory is the fact that Satoshi was still working on the code and posting on forums at a time when Hal Finney was already struggling with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and had difficulty using the keyboard. So, on August 22, 2010, ex-wife Fran Finney reported that due to ALS, Hal could not type text at a speed of 120 words per minute as before, he pressed the keyboard “sluggishly.” At the same time, Nakamoto checked the code 4 times and wrote 17 messages on various forums from August 14 to 15.
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Lopp claims that he studied the personality of Satoshi Nakamoto in detail and came to the conclusion that this is definitely not a group of people - Bitcoin was created by one person.
“As Benjamin Franklin noted, “Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.” I didn't find any evidence that it was a group. If it was a group, then they were all working on the same sleep schedule, writing the same commits, emails and forum posts,” Lopp noted.
Sadly, Hal Finney passed away in August 2014 due to complications from ALS.