Running Bitcoin

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Hal Finney’s iconic tweet on this day in 2009 Less than a week after Satoshi mined the first block, the late great cypherpunk @halfin was already running the permissionless #bitcoin software on his computer Hal Finney died in 2015 of ALS, lets take a moment to remember him: twitter.com/halfin/status/1110302988?s=46&t=rIY25abOlqaFU4lEJ4btmQ

Per the @NakamotoInst: "Hal Finney was a software engineer and an early member of the Cypherpunks. Finney was a notable advocate of cryptography and digital privacy. He worked for the PGP Corporation, where he developed some of the earliest PGP code."

Continued from the @NakamotoInst: "He also built the first anonymous remailer, the first proof-of-work based digital cash system, RPOW (Reusable Proofs of Work), and received the very first Bitcoin transaction sent by Satoshi Nakamoto." Let's review words that @halfin wrote:

Why remailers: Cypherpunk mailing list Nov 92 Hal talks about how he was inspired by the book True Names, how he was blown away by @chaumdotcom cryptography and how he got into PGP cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1992/11/msg00108.html

Digital Cash & Privacy: August 93 "One concern I have is that the move to electronic payments will decrease personal privacy..." And boy was Hal right! Hal mentions the double spending problem which Satoshi would later solve nakamotoinstitute.org/digital-cash-and-privacy/

Politics vs Technology: January 94 Hal questions the cypherpunk's ideology that you only need to write code to enable privacy. "If we want freedom and privacy, we must persuade others that these are worth having." nakamotoinstitute.org/politics-vs-technology/

For-Pay Remailers: Oct 94 "However, although it is easy to start a remailer, it is not so easy to keep one running in the face of complaints" Hal works through various options available at the time to introduce an economic model instead of altruism nakamotoinstitute.org/for-pay-remailers/

PGP Web of Trust Misconceptions: March 1994 "You can only communicate securely with someone whose key is signed by a person you know, either personally or by reputation." PGP was not the panacea for identity and reputation systems nakamotoinstitute.org/pgp-web-of-trust-misconceptions/

RPOW - Reusable Proofs of Work: August 04 Hal launches a proof of work token and uses @adam3us hashcash.org/ @NakamotoInst looks to also keep alive the original RPOW website nakamotoinstitute.org/finney/rpow/index.html nakamotoinstitute.org/rpow/

@BitcoinMagazine also wrote a great article on Hal's RPOW bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/the-genesis-files-how-hal-finneys-quest-for-digital-cash-led-to-rpow-and-more

Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper: November 2008 Hal responds to Satoshi's launch email on the cryptography mailing list. "Bitcoin seems to be a very promising idea." satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/threads/1/#014827

Bitcoin and Me: March 13 Hal describes his #bitcoin journey in his own words while being paralyzed by the terrible disease ALS. His final line in the post, "I'm comfortable with my legacy." I hope we all do great things in life to be able to say that nakamotoinstitute.org/bitcoin-and-me/

Finally, Hal's wife activated his dormant Twitter account to launch a special event called the "Running Bitcoin Challenge" to raise money to defeat ALS. twitter.com/halfin/status/1609640007924584448?s=20&t=8dr-kNpnwj0UxriK1yGo1w

Thanks for sticking until the end and remembering @halfin