Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonymous creator who developed and launched Bitcoin. His or her identity has been an intersecting topic in the crypto space as new theories often arise on the real identity.
Over the past decade, several individuals have been thought to be the BTC creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, and among the names mentioned was Hal Finney. His involvement in BTC and being a pioneer in the digital currency has put him in the spotlight for being Satoshi.
However, recent proceedings have shown this as misinformation based on various reasons. The current analysis challenges the theory of Hal being Satoshi Nakamoto based on evidence discrediting him as the initial BTC pioneer. This revelation has broader implications as the search for the elusive Satoshi is still ongoing.
Reasons Hal Finney is not Satoshi Nakamoto
Newly surfaced evidence has revealed that when Satoshi Nakamoto was replying to emails on the new digital asset and Bitcoin traction, Hal Finney was competing in a 10-mile race. This has disregarded the notion that he might be the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.
Speculations on whether the late Hal Finney was based on his involvement in receiving the first Bitcoin. He was in league with Satoshi Nakamoto after being the second person to download the Bitcoin software and run it. Also, Finney had decided on these speculations up until his passing in 2014.
Analysis of the investigations to find out the identity of Satoshi has been gathered, and new developments have been made.
Among the analysis of the case was the self-proclaimed cypherpunk Jameson Lopp. The Bitcoin custody firm co-founder doesn’t agree with the Hal theory of him being Nakamoto. Lopp shared new evidence on October 21, casting further doubt on the speculated theory.
He discovered the evidence placing Hal on a 10-mile race in Santa Barbara, California. He placed this timeliness around the presidential Satoshi was in play, replying to queries on the Bitcoin invention.
This was dated back in 2009, on Saturday, April 18. The “Santa’s Barbara Running Company Chardonnay 10 Miler &5K” race began at 8:00 PST. Hal was a participant in the race and finished in 1 hour and 18 minutes.
Impact of Satoshi’s unknown identity
In regard to proving Finney wasn’t Satoshi, the timestamp on the emails between Satoshi and Mike Hearn, one of BTC’s first developers, coincide and as such, proves Hal not being the BTC pioneer.
Lopp referred to the emails publicly posted by Hearn in 2017 and further explained:
It turns out that early Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn was emailing back and forth with Satoshi during this time. What can we determine from all of this? Satoshi sent the email to Mike at 9:16 AM Pacific time – 2 minutes before Hal crossed the finish line. For the hour and 18 minutes that Hal was running, we can be quite sure that he was not interacting with a computer.
Jameson Lopp
Lopp also commented on the on-chain data that further supports his claims. He noted Hearn’s emails that show Nakamoto sending him 32.5 BTC in a single transaction. This transaction took place on block 11,408, which was minted at 8:55 PST.
This was 55 minutes after the start of Hal’s race. Satoshi again confirmed the transaction by sending 50 BTC, according to a 6:16 pm mail.
Additionally, Hal Finney was battling with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and this affected his ability to use a keyboard. According to Hal’s wife, his health concerns slowed his typing a great deal to just sluggish finger pecking.
Satoshi’s identity being a secret greatly benefits the crypto community, and this has been supported by Lyn Alden in her series of X posts. She argued that his identity doesn’t add value to Bitcoin’s market performance.
Bitcoin was built as an open source decentralized project to survive regardless of who the creator was. The departure and the absence of the creator only made it *more* decentralized since it removed any sort of ultimate authority, and it iterated from there.
Lyn Alden on X
