Hal Finney: Bitcoin and Me
I thought here that I should write about the last four years, full of events for both me and Bitcoin.
For those who don't know me, I'm Hal Finney. I began my journey in cryptography from working on an early version of PGP, side by side with Phil Zimmerman. When Phil decided to establish PGP Corporation , I was among the first to be hired. I would work on PGP until I retire. At the same time, I contacted the cryptopanks ( Cypherpunks ). I kept the first anonymous remailer with encryption, among other things.
Rewind to the end of 2008 and the advent of Bitcoin. I noticed that the "grandfathers" in cryptography (I myself was already in the middle of my fifth ten) are becoming cynical. I was more idealistic; I have always loved cryptography with its secrets and paradoxes. When Satoshi introduced Bitcoin on a cryptographic list, he was skeptical at best. Cryptographers have seen too many “great projects” from illiterate beginners, so their reaction was predictable.
I was more positive; cryptographic payment schemes interested me for a long time. Plus, I was lucky to meet and closely communicate with Wei Dai , and Nick Szabo , avowed authors of ideas that, it seemed to me, would be implemented in Bitcoin. I even tried to create my own currency based on the proof of the work done, called RPOW. So bitcoin I found tempting.
')
When Satoshi published the first release of the software, I immediately pulled it off. I think I was the first, not counting Satoshi, who launched it. I namaynil block 70-something-there, and was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent me ten coins as a test. We closely communicated with Satoshi by email over the next few days, I basically wrote off the bugs, and he corrected them.
Today, Satoshi’s real identity is shrouded in mystery. But at that time I thought that I was dealing with a young man of Japanese descent, very intelligent and sincere. I had the good fortune to recognize many outstanding people in my life, and I can recognize them.
A few days later, Bitcoin was already quite stable, and I left it to work. Those were the days when the complexity was equal to one, and it was possible to find a whole block on the processor, even without a video card. During these days, I namainil several blocks; but then turned it off, because my computer warmed up and the noise from the fan began to annoy me. Now, looking back, I would like to hold it longer. But, on the other hand, I was already incredibly lucky to be there, at the very beginning. The coin has two sides.
The next time I heard about Bitcoin at the end of 2010, when I was surprised to learn that he was not only still alive, but the coins had gained monetary value. I brushed the dust from my old wallet and was relieved to find that my bitcoins were still there. Since their price has already risen to the level of real money, I transferred the coins to an offline wallet, where they, I hope, will be worth something for my descendants.
Speaking of descendants. In 2009, I got a surprise when I was accidentally discovered a deadly disease. At the beginning of the year, I was in better shape in my entire life, I lost a lot of weight and started a long-distance run. I have already run a half marathon several times and started to train for the marathon. I advanced to running over 20+ miles and was sure that I was in perfect order. That's when everything went racing.
My body began to fail. The speech became slurred, the strength went away from the hands, and the legs began to recover slowly. In August 2009, I was diagnosed with “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's disease, after the name of a famous baseball player who suffered from it.
ALS is a disease that affects motor neurons that transmit signals from the brain to the muscles. It causes weakness at first, and then gradually increasing paralysis. Death occurs within two to five years. My symptoms were initially weak, and I continued to work, but shortness of breath and problems with my voice forced me to retire at the beginning of 2011. Since then, the disease has continued to progress inexorably.
Today I’m mostly paralyzed. I eat through the tube, another tube helps me to breathe. I work with a computer through one of the systems on the market that monitor eye movements. She has a speech synthesizer, this is now my voice. I spend the whole day in a motorized chair. I built the interface on the Arduino, with which I can adjust the position of my chair with my eyes.
Yes, I had to adapt, but my life is not so bad. I can still read, listen to music, watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write code. Very slowly, probably 50 times slower than before. But I still love programming, and it gives me goals. I am currently working on something suggested by Mike Harn . I want to use the features implemented in modern processors to support trusted computing in order to make Bitcoin wallets more reliable. The project is almost ready for release. I just need to write the documentation.
And of course, the game pricing Bitcoin entertains me. In this game I have selfish interest. But I got my bitcoins thanks to luck, without much merit. I experienced a collapse in 2011. So this is already familiar to me. As acquired, and lived, as they say.
Here is my story. Overall, I’m pretty lucky. Even with my illness, my life is quite tolerable. True, and very limited. So these conversations about the transfer of bitcoins by inheritance are for me not just of academic interest. My bitcoins are kept in a safe bank box, and my son and daughter are technically savvy. I think they are safe there. For my inheritance, I am calm.
Note translator. This text was written by Hal in March 2013, a year ago. References to it surfaced in the network in connection with the latest attempts to reveal the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. According to the information from the profile on bitcointalk.org, his last post dates from August 2013. Although he reads the forum regularly.
For those who don't know me, I'm Hal Finney. I began my journey in cryptography from working on an early version of PGP, side by side with Phil Zimmerman. When Phil decided to establish PGP Corporation , I was among the first to be hired. I would work on PGP until I retire. At the same time, I contacted the cryptopanks ( Cypherpunks ). I kept the first anonymous remailer with encryption, among other things.
Rewind to the end of 2008 and the advent of Bitcoin. I noticed that the "grandfathers" in cryptography (I myself was already in the middle of my fifth ten) are becoming cynical. I was more idealistic; I have always loved cryptography with its secrets and paradoxes. When Satoshi introduced Bitcoin on a cryptographic list, he was skeptical at best. Cryptographers have seen too many “great projects” from illiterate beginners, so their reaction was predictable.
I was more positive; cryptographic payment schemes interested me for a long time. Plus, I was lucky to meet and closely communicate with Wei Dai , and Nick Szabo , avowed authors of ideas that, it seemed to me, would be implemented in Bitcoin. I even tried to create my own currency based on the proof of the work done, called RPOW. So bitcoin I found tempting.
')
When Satoshi published the first release of the software, I immediately pulled it off. I think I was the first, not counting Satoshi, who launched it. I namaynil block 70-something-there, and was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent me ten coins as a test. We closely communicated with Satoshi by email over the next few days, I basically wrote off the bugs, and he corrected them.
Today, Satoshi’s real identity is shrouded in mystery. But at that time I thought that I was dealing with a young man of Japanese descent, very intelligent and sincere. I had the good fortune to recognize many outstanding people in my life, and I can recognize them.
A few days later, Bitcoin was already quite stable, and I left it to work. Those were the days when the complexity was equal to one, and it was possible to find a whole block on the processor, even without a video card. During these days, I namainil several blocks; but then turned it off, because my computer warmed up and the noise from the fan began to annoy me. Now, looking back, I would like to hold it longer. But, on the other hand, I was already incredibly lucky to be there, at the very beginning. The coin has two sides.
The next time I heard about Bitcoin at the end of 2010, when I was surprised to learn that he was not only still alive, but the coins had gained monetary value. I brushed the dust from my old wallet and was relieved to find that my bitcoins were still there. Since their price has already risen to the level of real money, I transferred the coins to an offline wallet, where they, I hope, will be worth something for my descendants.
Speaking of descendants. In 2009, I got a surprise when I was accidentally discovered a deadly disease. At the beginning of the year, I was in better shape in my entire life, I lost a lot of weight and started a long-distance run. I have already run a half marathon several times and started to train for the marathon. I advanced to running over 20+ miles and was sure that I was in perfect order. That's when everything went racing.
My body began to fail. The speech became slurred, the strength went away from the hands, and the legs began to recover slowly. In August 2009, I was diagnosed with “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's disease, after the name of a famous baseball player who suffered from it.
ALS is a disease that affects motor neurons that transmit signals from the brain to the muscles. It causes weakness at first, and then gradually increasing paralysis. Death occurs within two to five years. My symptoms were initially weak, and I continued to work, but shortness of breath and problems with my voice forced me to retire at the beginning of 2011. Since then, the disease has continued to progress inexorably.
Today I’m mostly paralyzed. I eat through the tube, another tube helps me to breathe. I work with a computer through one of the systems on the market that monitor eye movements. She has a speech synthesizer, this is now my voice. I spend the whole day in a motorized chair. I built the interface on the Arduino, with which I can adjust the position of my chair with my eyes.
Yes, I had to adapt, but my life is not so bad. I can still read, listen to music, watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write code. Very slowly, probably 50 times slower than before. But I still love programming, and it gives me goals. I am currently working on something suggested by Mike Harn . I want to use the features implemented in modern processors to support trusted computing in order to make Bitcoin wallets more reliable. The project is almost ready for release. I just need to write the documentation.
And of course, the game pricing Bitcoin entertains me. In this game I have selfish interest. But I got my bitcoins thanks to luck, without much merit. I experienced a collapse in 2011. So this is already familiar to me. As acquired, and lived, as they say.
Here is my story. Overall, I’m pretty lucky. Even with my illness, my life is quite tolerable. True, and very limited. So these conversations about the transfer of bitcoins by inheritance are for me not just of academic interest. My bitcoins are kept in a safe bank box, and my son and daughter are technically savvy. I think they are safe there. For my inheritance, I am calm.
Note translator. This text was written by Hal in March 2013, a year ago. References to it surfaced in the network in connection with the latest attempts to reveal the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. According to the information from the profile on bitcointalk.org, his last post dates from August 2013. Although he reads the forum regularly.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/215091/
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