Everyone has already accepted that Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, a mythical figure of Japanese-American origin who generously rewarded his wallets with thousands of Bitcoins and disappeared to live on a beautiful island and practice oil painting.

He turned off the Internet and threw his mobile phone into the sea.

Generous... all in the name of creating a new global financial system.

Now let's move on to reality and cypherpunks🔥Harold Thomas Finney II is a real cypherpunk, a genius who adored mathematics since childhood, was passionate about encryption and always took first place in local math Olympiads.

He later successfully graduated from the prestigious California Institute of Technology. There, young Hal became interested in the ideas of libertarianism, which formed the basis of the values ​​of the Bitcoin system: human freedom, freedom of choice, individual judgment.

Hal was involved in the development of computer games, although he never considered himself a game creator, preferring the role of a developer of the main profile of an application in the Assembly language.

It was his conceptual solutions in the field of code and data security systems that served as the basis for the successful creation of PGP Corporation, later renamed Symantec. Oh, something already familiar!

In the 90s, Finney met the cypherpunks and created the first anonymous remailer. Later, becoming interested in encryption and cryptography, he wondered about the loss of anonymity of users on the Internet.

Cypherpunks is the general name for a movement of cryptographers who advocate the creation of digital money, anonymity, security and freedom on the Internet. Everything we love...

Therefore, you too can consider yourself a cypherpunk, just learn cryptography...

Among the legendary cryptographers is David Chom, whose views greatly influenced Finney himself. Also Timothy May, creator of the BlackNet two-way data exchange system, which uses a non-governmental digital currency, and cryptographers John Gilmore and Eric Hughes. By the way, Timothy May is the creator of the “Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto.”

And this is where the fun begins. In 2004, Hal Finney developed the Reusable Proof of Work algorithm.

Now this algorithm is the basis of the Bitcoin network.

What about Satoshi?

Satoshi will appear later, anonymously write to Finny and begin sending him code samples, which Hal will test for errors and fix fundamental problems

It is said that they lived in the same city, and there is a version that the first transactions in the Bitcoin network were made from nearby IP addresses. The first transaction was received by Finny from the mythical Satoshi Nakamoto. Finny mined the first Bitcoins on his computer in droves.

However, he soon stopped doing this due to the increasing complexity and overheating of the equipment.

Hal Finney, unfortunately, did not have time to enjoy global success; in 2010, he was diagnosed with progressive amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He left this world in 2014.

The explosion of cryptocurrencies was just a few years away.

In fact, all technological solutions in Bitcoin are the work of Finney, so many rightly believe that Satoshi Nakamoto is exactly him, a modest cryptographer and mathematician who left us due to a serious illness.

P.S. Let me remind you that it was Finny who made the first tweet about Bitcoin