Recent evidence has shed light on the long-standing speculation surrounding Hal Finney, a pioneer in Bitcoin’s early development. It has been suggested for years that Hal Finney, the computer scientist who was the second person to download and use Bitcoin’s software (and the first to receive Bitcoin), might have been the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto. Despite this speculation, Finney denied being Satoshi until he passed away in 2014.
Jameson Lopp, a self-styled cypherpunk and co-founder of the Bitcoin security firm Casa, has also expressed skepticism about this theory. In a blog post dated October 21, Lopp unveiled fresh evidence that further questions the notion that Finney was Nakamoto. Central to this evidence is Finney’s participation in a 10-mile race.
As per the race records, Finney took part in the “Santa Barbara Running Company Chardonnay 10 Miler & 5K” in Santa Barbara, California, on Saturday, April 18, 2009. He began the race at 8:00 am Pacific Standard Time and completed it in 78 minutes.
Interestingly, this race timing overlaps with documented emails exchanged between Satoshi Nakamoto and Mike Hearn, one of the pioneering Bitcoin developers.
Lopp highlights, citing previously released email archives from Hearn, “It seems that Mike Hearn was in active communication with Satoshi during the race period.”
He went on to emphasize the significance of the timing: “The email from Satoshi to Mike was timestamped at 9:16 AM Pacific time, just 2 minutes before Hal would finish his race.”
Lopp concludes, “Considering Hal was actively running for an hour and 18 minutes, it’s highly improbable he was simultaneously engaging with a computer.”
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