Hal Finney couldn’t possibly be Satoshi Nakamoto, new analysis suggests

Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney was competing successful a 10-mile contention astatine the nonstop clip Satoshi Nakamoto was responding to emails and transacting connected Bitcoin, recently surfaced grounds has revealed.

For years, it has been commonly speculated that the precocious Hal Finney, a machine scientist, was the creator of Bitcoin. He was the archetypal idiosyncratic too Satoshi to download and tally Bitcoin’s bundle and was the first recipient of Bitcoin. Finney, however, denied the mentation until his passing successful 2014.

Jameson Lopp, a self-proclaimed cypherpunk and co-founder of Bitcoin custody fi Casa, doesn’t judge the speculation either. In an Oct. 21 blog post, Lopp shared caller grounds that casts further uncertainty connected the theory.

Racing to nonstop an email

Lopp’s cardinal grounds revolves astir a 10-mile contention successful Santa Barbara, California connected Saturday, April 18, 2009.

According to the contention data, Finney competed successful the “Santa Barbara Running Company Chardonnay 10 Miler & 5K,” starting astatine 8 americium Pacific clip and finishing the contention astatine 78 minutes.

The race, however, coincides with timestamped emails betwixt Satoshi and 1 of the archetypal Bitcoin developers, Mike Hearn.

Hal Finney was a legendary Cypherpunk, but helium was not Satoshi.
Today I contiguous my probe to enactment that claim.https://t.co/gZVQv3QW0B

— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) October 21, 2023

“It turns retired that aboriginal Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn was emailing backmost and distant with Satoshi during this time,” explained Lopp, referring to archived emails that Hearn had released publically successful the past.

“What tin we find from each of this? Satoshi sent the email to Mike astatine 9:16 AM Pacific clip - 2 minutes earlier Hal crossed the decorativeness line.”

“For the hr and 18 minutes that Hal was running, we tin beryllium rather definite that helium was not interacting with a computer,” Lopp added.

Hal Finney pictured moving the 10 mile contention connected April 18. Source: PhotoCrazy

The Bitcoin transaction

Meanwhile, Lopp highlighted on-chain information which further supports his claim.

Hearn’s emails with Nakamoto amusement that Nakamoto sent Hearn 32.5 BTC successful 1 peculiar transaction.

Lopp pointed to this transaction that took spot connected artifact 11,408, which was mined astatine 8:55 americium California clip — 55 minutes into Finney’s race.

Nakamoto confirmed this transaction — successful summation to different 1 involving 50 BTC — successful the 6:16 p.m. email, which Lopp iterates took spot portion Finney was inactive running.

Health issues

Meanwhile, investigation has besides highlighted that Satoshi was moving connected codification and posting connected assorted forums during a clip erstwhile Hal Finney’s conflict with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) had already affected his quality to usage a keyboard.

Lopp cited an Aug. 22, 2010 station from Hal Finney’s past wife, Fran Finney, who said the mates attended the 2010 Singularity Summit successful San Francisco connected Aug. 14-15 and that Finney’s hard-fought conflict ALS slowed his typing from a “rapid-fire” 120 words per infinitesimal to a “sluggish digit peck.”

Bitcoin is amended disconnected with Satoshi's individuality remaining unknown. A quality tin beryllium criticized and politically attacked. A story volition withstand the trial of time.

— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) August 12, 2023

During that aforesaid time, Nakamoto performed 4 codification check-ins and wrote 17 posts connected assorted forums betwixt Aug. 14-15, 2010, said Lopp.

Lopp besides noted respective differences successful Finney’s Reusable Proofs of Work codification compared to the original Bitcoin lawsuit code.

Related: Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney talks ZK-proofs successful 25-year-old unearthed footage

However, Lopp besides acknowledged determination could beryllium objections to the alleged evidence.

Hearn published the emails successful 2017 — 7 years ex-post facto — and that it was astir a clip erstwhile different Bitcoiners mislaid spot successful him implicit disagreements connected however to standard Bitcoin.

Finney could person besides scripted the emails and transactions successful advance, oregon determination could person been much than 1 Satoshi Nakamoto, Lopp said.

However, Lopp argues that Bitcoin’s instauration came from a azygous developer:

“In each my clip researching Satoshi, I've yet to travel crossed immoderate grounds suggesting it was a group. If it was a group, past they each operated connected the aforesaid slumber schedule, accordant crossed codification commits, emails, and forum posts.”

Hal Finney unluckily passed distant successful August 2014 arsenic a effect of complications with ALS.

Magazine: Big Questions: Did the NSA make Bitcoin?