Thursday morning, Hal Finney, one of the greats in the worlds of bitcoin, cryptography, computer science, privacy, and in the larger world of the internet, died after many years living with ALS.
Hal was there at the beginning. He was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction sent to him by the enigmatic Satoshi Nakamoto. He helped build bitcoin. Even before bitcoin, Hal played a major role in the early cypherpunk movement and in PGP encryption.
He was a man who championed liberty, even as his body succumbed to ALS – trapping his brilliant mind inside.
We are also honored that Hal was a supporting backer of the Life On Bitcoin film project. In his memory, we are donating $100 to the ALS Foundation.
Here is a short video Austin made to honor Hal.
Further reading:
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/
An April 2014 audio piece
http://www.onthemedia.org/
from March
http://www.forbes.com/sites/