Previously, several reports had suggested that Bitcoin creator Hal Finney was the face behind the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. However, the newly surfaced evidence shows that Hal Finney was completing a 10-mile race at a time when Satoshi Nakamoto was conducting transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain and responding to emails.
Jameson Lopp busts the Theory
Jameson Lopp, co-founder of Bitcoin custody firm Casa, expressed skepticism about the aforementioned speculation. In an October 21 blog post, Lopp presented fresh evidence challenging the theory.
Lopp’s primary evidence revolves around a 10-mile race held in Santa Barbara, California on April 18, 2009. According to race data, Finney participated in the “Santa Barbara Running Company Chardonnay 10 Miler & 5K,” commencing at 8 a.m. Pacific time and completing the race in 78 minutes.
This race coincides with timestamped emails exchanged between Satoshi and one of the initial Bitcoin developers, Mike Hearn.
Hal Finney was a legendary Cypherpunk, but he was not Satoshi.
Today I present my research to support that claim.https://t.co/gZVQv3QW0B— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) October 21, 2023
During this period, it has been revealed that early Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn was engaged in email correspondence with Satoshi, as evidenced by archived emails Hearn had previously made public.
This new information raises intriguing questions. Satoshi sent an email to Mike at 9:16 AM Pacific time, merely 2 minutes before Hal completed his race. Lopp emphasized, “For the entire 1 hour and 18 minutes that Hal was running the race, it’s highly unlikely that he was simultaneously interacting with a computer or engaged in email communication.”
Additionally, Lopp underscored that on-chain data corroborates his argument. Examining Hearn’s emails with Nakamoto, it is evident that Nakamoto initiated a transaction involving 32.5 BTC during a specific transaction. Notably, this transaction occurred in block 11,408, which was mined at 8:55 AM California time. This is approximately 55 minutes after the start of Hal Finney’s race.
Furthermore, Nakamoto confirmed this transaction, along with another one involving 50 BTC, in an email sent at 6:16 PM. Lopp emphasized that this email was sent while Hal Finney was still participating in the race.
More on Hal Finney and Satoshi Nakamoto
Furthermore, the analysis has brought to light the fact that Satoshi Nakamoto was actively engaged in coding and participating in various online forums during a period when Hal Finney was grappling with the effects of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which had significantly impaired his keyboard usage.
Lopp pointed to an August 22, 2010 post made by Hal Finney’s former wife, Fran Finney, where she mentioned that the couple had attended the 2010 Singularity Summit in San Francisco on August 14-15. She revealed that due to Finney’s ongoing battle with ALS, his typing speed had slowed from a rapid 120 words per minute to a sluggish finger peck.
During the same timeframe, Satoshi Nakamoto conducted four code check-ins and contributed to 17 forum posts between August 14-15, 2010, as outlined by Lopp.
In addition, Lopp highlighted several distinctions between Finney’s Reusable Proofs of Work code and the original Bitcoin client code.
Lopp has, however, stated that he welcomes objections to his thesis. He also believes that Bitcoin’s creation comes from a single developer instead of a group of developers.
Recently Satoshi shared a post after years talking about the future of Bitcoin. On the other hand, Australian scientist Craig Wright has been repeatedly claiming to be the real Bitcoin creator. However, he’s failed to provide any evidence for the same.
Lopp said: “Bitcoin is better off with Satoshi’s identity remaining unknown. A human can be criticized and politically attacked. A myth will withstand the test of time”.
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