Bitcoin and me (Hal Finney)

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I thought I'd write about the last four years, an eventful time for Bitcoin and
me.

For those who don't know me, I'm Hal Finney. I got my start in crypto working on
an early version of PGP, working closely with Phil Zimmermann. When Phil decided
to start PGP Corporation, I was one of the first hires. I would work on PGP
until my retirement. At the same time, I got involved with the Cypherpunks. I
ran the first cryptographically based anonymous remailer, among other
activities.

Fast forward to late 2008 and the announcement of Bitcoin. I've noticed that
cryptographic graybeards (I was in my mid 50's) tend to get cynical. I was more
idealistic; I have always loved crypto, the mystery and the paradox of it.

When Satoshi announced Bitcoin on the cryptography mailing list, he got a
skeptical reception at best. Cryptographers have seen too many grand schemes by
clueless noobs. They tend to have a knee jerk reaction.

I was more positive. I had long been interested in cryptographic payment
schemes. Plus I was lucky enough to meet and extensively correspond with both
Wei Dai and Nick Szabo, generally acknowledged to have created ideas that would
be realized with Bitcoin. I had made an attempt to create my own proof of work
based currency, called RPOW. So I found Bitcoin facinating.

When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right
away. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin. I mined
block 70-something, and I was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction,
when Satoshi sent ten coins to me as a test. I carried on an email conversation
with Satoshi over the next few days, mostly me reporting bugs and him fixing
them.

Today, Satoshi's true identity has become a mystery. But at the time, I thought
I was dealing with a young man of Japanese ancestry who was very smart and
sincere. I've had the good fortune to know many brilliant people over the course
of my life, so I recognize the signs.

After a few days, bitcoin was running pretty stably, so I left it running. Those
were the days when difficulty was 1, and you could find blocks with a CPU, not
even a GPU. I mined several blocks over the next days. But I turned it off
because it made my computer run hot, and the fan noise bothered me. In
retrospect, I wish I had kept it up longer, but on the other hand I was
extraordinarily lucky to be there at the beginning. It's one of those glass half
full half empty things.

The next I heard of Bitcoin was late 2010, when I was surprised to find that it
was not only still going, bitcoins actually had monetary value. I dusted off my
old wallet, and was relieved to discover that my bitcoins were still there. As
the price climbed up to real money, I transferred the coins into an offline
wallet, where hopefully they'll be worth something to my heirs.

Speaking of heirs, I got a surprise in 2009, when I was suddenly diagnosed with
a fatal disease. I was in the best shape of my life at the start of that year,
I'd lost a lot of weight and taken up distance running. I'd run several half
marathons, and I was starting to train for a full marathon. I worked my way up
to 20+ mile runs, and I thought I was all set. That's when everything went
wrong.

My body began to fail. I slurred my speech, lost strength in my hands, and my
legs were slow to recover. In August, 2009, I was given the diagnosis of ALS,
also called Lou Gehrig's disease, after the famous baseball player who got it.

ALS is a disease that kills moter neurons, which carry signals from the brain to
the muscles. It causes first weakness, then gradually increasing paralysis. It
is usually fatal in 2 to 5 years. My symptoms were mild at first and I continued
to work, but fatigue and voice problems forced me to retire in early 2011. Since
then the disease has continued its inexorable progression.

Today, I am essentially paralyzed. I am fed through a tube, and my breathing is
assisted through another tube. I operate the computer using a commercial
eyetracker system. It also has a speech synthesizer, so this is my voice now. I
spend all day in my power wheelchair. I worked up an interface using an arduino
so that I can adjust my wheelchair's position using my eyes.

It has been an adjustment, but my life is not too bad. I can still read, listen
to music, and watch TV and movies. I recently discovered that I can even write
code. It's very slow, probably 50 times slower than I was before. But I still
love programming and it gives me goals. Currently I'm working on something Mike
Hearn suggested, using the security features of modern processors, designed to
support "Trusted Computing", to harden Bitcoin wallets. It's almost ready to
release. I just have to do the documentation.

And of course the price gyrations of bitcoins are entertaining to me. I have
skin in the game. But I came by my bitcoins through luck, with little credit to
me. I lived through the crash of 2011. So I've seen it before. Easy come, easy
go.

That's my story. I'm pretty lucky overall. Even with the ALS, my life is very
satisfying. But my life expectancy is limited. Those discussions about
inheriting your bitcoins are of more than academic interest. My bitcoins are
stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech savvy. I think
they're safe enough. I'm comfortable with my legacy.

[edited slightly]

Hal Finney

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