Hal Finney was an American computer scientist, cryptography expert, and early Bitcoin pioneer. Finney helped improve Bitcoin’s original code and was the recipient of the first-ever Bitcoin transaction between himself and Bitcoin’s anonymous founder Satoshi Nakomoto in 2009. This initial transaction was instrumental in showing that the network worked and had the support of certain experts in the cryptography field.

Finney passed due to complications from ALS in 2014 at the age of 58. In addition to his contributions to Bitcoin, Finney was also known for working on PGP and Tor (two monumental technologies in the privacy and cryptography spaces).

Is Hal Finney Satoshi Nakomoto?

Finney’s expertise in the cryptography field and the fact that he received the first transaction from Satoshi has led many to speculate that he was in fact Satoshi Nakomoto, or that he personally knew Nakomoto.

Finney, however, denied such claims and even provided proof of his email correspondences with Satoshi Nakomoto which suggest that Finney was not Satoshi and did not know who Satoshi really was either.

How many bitcoins did Hal Finney Own?

It is impossible to know for sure how many bitcoins Hal Finney owned. What we do know is that Finney received 10 Bitcoin from Satoshi himself in the first ever Bitcoin transaction.