Exactly 14 years ago, Hal Finney revealed his fatal ALS diagnosis to the world
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Hal Finney was the first person to download the Bitcoin software, the first person to suggest code fixes to Satoshi Nakamoto and the first peer to trustlessly receive a transaction – all before BTC had a quotable price.
Finney was tragically diagnosed with ALS in August 2009, seven months after he and Satoshi started working on Bitcoin together. ALS is a fatal disease that attacks the central nervous system and finally causes paralysis.
Finney maintained his positive outlook and good spirits despite the sluggish development of his task. “Since we’re all rich with Bitcoins, or we will be once they’re worth a million dollars like everyone expects, we ought to put some of this unearned wealth to good use,” he said in a post on the Bitcointalk site.
“My dream is to contribute to open source software projects even from within an immobile body. That will be a life very much worth living.”
Truly missed…
Fun fact: In 2009 Hal Finney predicted $10M per Bitcoin. He divided the world’s wealth by 20 million and NOT 21 million. Did Hal imply that Satoshi would never spend his coins?
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