January 11, 2009: Jason Finney heard the machines humming in the attic.
The boy was forbidden to go up there when his father’s computers, Hal’s, were turned on.
That night, his dad had an important mission: to receive the first
#Bitcoin transaction in history.
Jason was 26 years old when, on a Saturday—January 10, 2009—his father fired up the machines and sent a tweet from the attic that would go down in history.
#Bitcoin had barely been launched, and Hal Finney had already downloaded the software and was mining coins at home.
It was no coincidence.
Harold Thomas Finney II was the perfect figure to receive Satoshi Nakamoto’s torch 🗽
He was one of the first employees of the PGP Corporation.
In 2004, he created a system of reusable proof-of-work. He was also an active participant on the mailing list where Satoshi announced
#BTC.
Hal and Fran Finney had two children.
The kids grew up immersed in technology. They had home internet as early as 1991.
Their father was a video game developer who became a cypherpunk activist.
But even by that household’s standards… Hal’s recent obsession was curious.
When Satoshi released the software, Hal rushed to install it, helped fix bugs, and made the famous prediction that “a coin could eventually be worth $10M.”
He began mining.
In January 2009, that attic was humming day and night. Hal was excited.
In early 2009, Jason noticed that his father’s computer processor was running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at full speed. “He mentioned that he was helping someone test a kind of prototype for an online money system. That’s how he saw it. It wasn’t real—it was a test for a prototype.”
More specifically, this test was the receipt of the first Bitcoin transaction by Hal. Although it was just another step in the process for him, Hal’s role would forever secure him a place in the annals of cryptography around the world.
Two days after the famous tweet, Hal received the first transaction in history:
10 BTC directly from Satoshi Nakamoto.
The emails he exchanged with Satoshi between January 9 and 24 were later made public by Fran Finney:
https://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/finneynakamotoemails.pdf
The toy took off. The noise in the attic turned into money.
When
#BTC hit $1, Hal gave exotic Christmas gifts to the whole family—
like alpaca wool socks, which became legendary.
But he didn’t get to enjoy the rewards of his pioneering role. Everything was about to change.
Every genius carries a cross.
Hal Finney had ALS—a degenerative disease that, between 2011 and 2013, impaired his speech and movement.
The Finney attic fell silent.
Soon after Satoshi disappeared, Hal also stopped mining. See the chart below 👇
Hal had a project to improve a wallet, which he carried forward as far as he could.
When he could no longer type, Hal built a device that allowed him to write using eye movements.
It was 20 times slower than using his fingers, but it worked.
Hal kept programming until he could no longer communicate.
In March 2013, he published a farewell letter titled “Bitcoin and Me.”
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054.0In it, he said he was “comfortable with his legacy.”
In August 2014, he left behind two children, his wife, and a legion of admirers.
Hal was not buried or cremated.
Instead, he was cryopreserved.
He rests in a frozen tank in the Arizona desert, waiting for medicine to advance enough to repair his ailments.
Fran says that Hal “loved change.” He just wanted “to be able to see what the world would become.”
The coins mined in the Finney attic essentially paid for the treatment and gave Hal a dignified end of life.
His children inherited a love for science and freedom.
Perhaps Hal remembers a private key—and if he’s ever brought back, he’ll have a little money to spend.
Erin, the youngest, is a programmer.
Jason became a math teacher and a science fiction writer.
Fran works funding research into the disease that put Hal’s life “on pause.”
Every year, she organizes a half marathon that raises donations in
#BTC for the ALSF.
