Harold Thomas Finney II (May 4, 1956 – August 28, 2014) was an American

software developer Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development invo ...

. In his early career, he was credited as lead developer on several

console games A console game is a type of video game consisting of images and often sounds generated by a video game console, which are displayed on a television or similar audio-video system, and that can be manipulated by a player. This manipulation usually ...

. Finney later worked for

PGP Corporation PGP Corporation was a company that sold Pretty Good Privacy computer software. It was founded in 2002, and acquired by Symantec in 2010, and by Broadcom in 2019. History PGP Corporation was co-founded in June 2002 by Jon Callas and Phil Dunkelber ...

. He also was an early

bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distr ...

contributor and received the first bitcoin transaction from bitcoin's creator

Satoshi Nakamoto Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, Nakam ...

Early life and education

Finney was born in

Coalinga, California Coalinga ( or ) is a city in Fresno County and the western San Joaquin Valley, in central California about 80 miles (128 km) southeast of Salinas. It was formerly known as ''Coaling Station A'', ''Coalingo'', and ''Coalinga Station''. Th ...

, on May 4, 1956, to Virginia and Harold Thomas Finney. His father was a petroleum engineer. Harold Finney II attended the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

, graduating with a BS in engineering in 1979.

Career

After graduation from Caltech, he went to work in the computer gaming field for a company that developed video games such as '' Adventures of Tron'', '' Armor Ambush'', ''

Astrosmash ''Astrosmash'' is a fixed shooter video game for the Intellivision console, designed by John Sohl, and released by Mattel Electronics in 1981. The player uses a laser cannon to destroy falling meteors, bombs, and other targets.''Astrosmash'', Mat ...

'' and ''Space Attack''. He later went to work for the

with whom he remained until his retirement in 2011. Finney was a noted

cryptographic Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or '' -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adv ...

activist. During the early 1990s, in addition to being a regular poster on the

cypherpunk A cypherpunk is any individual advocating widespread use of strong cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a route to social and political change. Originally communicating through the Cypherpunks electronic mailing list, informal g ...

s listserv, Finney ran two

anonymous remailer An anonymous remailer is a server that receives messages with embedded instructions on where to send them next, and that forwards them without revealing where they originally came from. There are cypherpunk anonymous remailers, mixmaster anonymo ...

s. Further cryptographic activism included running a (successful) contest to break the export-grade encryption

Netscape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was on ...

used. In 2004, Finney created the first reusable proof of work system before

Bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distr ...

. In January 2009, Finney was the Bitcoin network's first transaction recipient.

Bitcoin

Finney was a

and said: He was an early

user and on January 12, 2009, he received the first bitcoin transaction from Bitcoin's creator

. Finney lived in the same town for 10 years that Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto lived in (

Temple City, California Temple City, officially the City of Temple City, is a city in Los Angeles County, California located northeast of downtown Los Angeles and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Temple City is part of a cluster of cities, along with Pasadena ...

), adding to speculation that he may have been Bitcoin's creator. Finney denied that he was

. In March 2013, Finney posted on a Bitcoin forum, BitcoinTalk, that he was essentially paralyzed. He continued to program until his death; he was working on experimental software called bcflick, which uses

Trusted Computing Trusted Computing (TC) is a technology developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group. The term is taken from the field of trusted systems and has a specialized meaning that is distinct from the field of Confidential Computing. The core i ...

to strengthen Bitcoin wallets. During the last year of his life, the Finneys received anonymous calls demanding an extortion fee of 1,000 bitcoin. They became victims of

swatting Swatting is a criminal harassment tactic of deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by ...

– a hoax "where the perpetrator calls up emergency dispatch using a spoofed telephone number and pretends to have committed a heinous crime in the hopes of provoking an armed police response to the victim's home". Extortionists have demanded fees of more bitcoins than Finney had left after using most of them to cover medical expenses in 2013.

Personal life

In October 2009, Finney announced in an essay on the blog '' Less Wrong'' that he had been diagnosed with

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most commo ...

(ALS) in August 2009. Prior to his illness, Finney had been an active runner. Finney and his wife raised money for ALS research with the

Santa Barbara International Marathon The Santa Barbara International Marathon and Half Marathon is a road race in Southern California. The race was first run in 1965 and was one of the first marathons in California. Since Santa Barbara itself is a popular tourist destination, it i ...

Death

Finney died in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

, on August 28, 2014, as a result of complications of

ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

and was cryopreserved by the

Alcor Life Extension Foundation The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, most often referred to as Alcor, is an American nonprofit, federally tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization based in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States. Alcor advocates for, researches, and performs cryonics, t ...

.Popper, Nathaniel
"Hal Finney, Cryptographer and Bitcoin Pioneer, Dies at 58"
, ''The New York Times'', August 30, 2014

References

External links

* *
Review: Vernor Vinge’s ‘Fast Times’
(review by Finney in ''Extropy'')
Hal Finney's profile in Forbes Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finney, Hal People associated with Bitcoin American transhumanists California Institute of Technology alumni Cypherpunks Deaths from motor neuron disease Neurological disease deaths in Arizona 1956 births 2014 deaths Cryonically preserved people People from Coalinga, California