_edited_edited_ed.png)
On August 28, 2014, Hal Finney passed away from rare ALS syndrome.
In the course of this, I have tried to create a small artistic tribute in pencil, in which I reminisce about Hal Finney, his work and his legendary proclamation “Running bitcoin”.
In my drawing, which I made with 8 different pencils, a fineliner and two brushes, there are six further portraits of Hal in addition to the well-known image of Hal running a marathon in the center of the artwork, representing different stages of his life.
In two of these portraits, he is accompanied by his wife Fran Finney, to whom he was married for 35 years.
When Satoshi Nakamoto finally presented his concept "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" via an email distribution list in 2008, Hal Finney was one of the first people to learn about Bitcoin and was immediately impressed.
In a legendary tweet "Running bitcoin" from January 12, 2009, Hal announced to the world that he was the first person, after Satoshi himself, to run the Bitcoin software.
That very day he was to become the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction in history, in which 10 bitcoin had been sent from Satoshi to Hal with block 170.
Over the course of time, Hal became heavily involved in the debate surrounding Bitcoin and often had clever thoughts, some of which were characterized by enormous foresight. As early as 2010, for example, he predicted that Bitcoin would have to be scaled via second-layer technologies such as the Lightning Network.
"Bitcoin itself cannot scale in such a way that every single financial transaction in the world could be transferred to everyone and included in the blockchain. There needs to be a second layer of payment systems that is lighter and more efficient."
As time went on, Hal's involvement in the early days of Bitcoin history led to claims that he himself was Satoshi.
Among other things, the "coincidence" that a so-called "Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto" lived in Hal's neighborhood at the time of Bitcoin's development is seen by many people as a strong indication that the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto" is just an alter ego of Hal Finney.
However, he himself vigorously denied throughout his life that he was Satoshi. Whether Hal Finney was Satoshi Nakamoto or not is ultimately irrelevant to us, and it would have no significance for Bitcoin itself.
What we do know is that through Hal's work, fundamental discoveries, improvements and signposts were made for the still very young Bitcoin network and he will go down in history as one of the first pioneers of this renaissance and paradigm shift through Bitcoin.