THE PASSING OF A PIONEER

Bitcoin might last forever but its developers are mortal. In early 2011, its founder Satoshi exited into pastures unknown, rendering his existence unverifiable. Hal Finney’s departure, on the other hand, was final – or was it? With his body cryogenically frozen, there remains an outside chance that future generations may be able to rekindle Hal’s consciousness. But the current generation of bitcoiners, at least, are destined to grow up knowing only what can be gleaned from one of its founding fathers in the history books.

In the early 90s, Hal found his ideological home within the Cypherpunk movement, whose cryptographers, hackers, and activists converged on a mailing list to discuss the use of strong cryptography for political and social change. One of his most memorable insights came in a 1992 response to the work of cryptographer David Chaum, who was developing early forms of digital cash. As Hal sagely noted, “The computer can be used as a tool to liberate and protect people, rather than to control them.”

With this mindset, Hal was a natural candidate to absorb Satoshi’s ideas when they came calling, and he promptly soaked them up like a sponge. Hal was famously one of the first mailing list members to respond positively to the Bitcoin whitepaper when it was shared in October 2008, calling it “a very promising idea.” Soon, he wasn’t just talking – he was actively participating, receiving the first Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi in early 2009 and sending the first ever tweet about Bitcoin. By then, Hal had already begun supporting Satoshi with Bitcoin’s development, readily supplying feedback on ways to improve its protocol.

“Given his own experience experimenting with Proof-of-Work and digital cash and his unwavering optimism,” writes Nakamoto Institute, “it is no surprise in hindsight that Hal Finney was among the very first people besides Satoshi Nakamoto to be enraptured by Bitcoin's potential.”

A Race Against Time

But as Hal was batting for Bitcoin, he suddenly found himself facing a far greater challenge. In August 2009, he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). In a blog post the following month, he acknowledged the disease was fatal but focused on two “bright spots”: that his mind would remain intact, and that survival was possible with mechanical respiration. “Even as my body is dying outside,” he wrote, “I will remain alive inside.”

As the disease weakened his body, Hal continued working on Bitcoin and cryptography projects. When his hands failed, he learned to operate his computer using an eyetracker system. Though his pace diminished to what he estimated was “50 times slower than I was before,” he continued to write code.

In March 2013, Finney posted a message to the Bitcointalk forum that would serve as his public farewell and a précis of his journey with the technology he helped launch. Titled “Bitcoin and Me,” the post recounts his initial fascination (“When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right away”), his early correspondence with Satoshi, and his surprise when Bitcoin gained real monetary value (“The next I heard of Bitcoin was late 2010, when I was surprised to find that it was not only still going, bitcoins actually had monetary value. I dusted off my old wallet, and was relieved to discover that my bitcoins were still there”). He writes with profound equanimity about his illness and his satisfaction with his life and legacy.

On August 28, 2014, by which point he could no longer communicate, Hal Finney’s ventilator was powered down and he passed over to the other side. It was the end of one journey but the beginning of another as a plan he had conceived decades earlier went into action. Over the course of several days, Hal’s body was cryogenically frozen to -196°C. He was then placed in an aluminum pod inside a large Dewar tank filled with 450 liters of liquid nitrogen, where he remains in long-term storage, cared for “until the day when repair and revival may be possible.”