Satoshi Nakamoto Sent Hal Finney the First Bitcoin Transaction

On January 12, 2009, the creator of Bitcoin, known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, sent the first transaction in the Bitcoin network to Hal Finney.

Unlike Satoshi, far more is known about the first recipient of cryptocurrency.

Hal Finney, for many years, collaborated with PGP Corporation, developing encryption software. He launched the first anonymous remailer and was on the early mailing list among cypherpunks.

Six months before his death in August 2014, Finney described his experience with the early interaction with Bitcoin:

“When Satoshi released the software, I connected immediately. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run Bitcoin. I mined 70-odd blocks, and became the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction.”

Satoshi sent ten coins in the first transaction as a test. In the following days Finney corresponded with the Bitcoin creator by email, helping to fix bugs.

Details of the first Bitcoin transaction. Data: Blockchain.

According to Finney, Satoshi’s identity remained a mystery to him. The developer speculated that he was dealing with “a young Japanese-born man, very smart and sincere.”

“A few days later, Bitcoin worked fairly steadily, so I stayed online. Those were the days when difficulty stood at 1, and you could mine on a CPU. In the days that followed I mined a few blocks, but turned off the computer because it heated up and the fan noise irritated me,” — wrote Finney.

Describing his experience in 2014, the developer regretted his initially low interest in Bitcoin. After helping test the network and his first mining experience, Finney simply shut down the client.

He returned to Bitcoin in 2010, when Laszlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 BTC and Bitcoin was first exchanged for dollars.

“I blew the dust off my old wallet and was relieved to find that my bitcoins were still there. My kids are tech-savvy enough that I left the cryptocurrency to them as an inheritance,” — the developer wrote.

Read more about Hal Finney’s life and his contributions to the crypto industry in our feature.

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