Today in Bitcoin History: 13 years of the transaction between Satoshi and Hal Finney

Exactly 13 years have passed since computer scientist Hal Finney became the recipient of the first transaction on the Bitcoin block chain by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

On January 12, 2009, when the white paper of Bitcoin (BTC) was only three months old, Satoshi sent to Finney 10 BTC, which at that time was worth almost nothing, but today is worth about USD 440,000. The movement, probably a test to determine the viab ility of the block chain, was the first in a series of hundreds of millions of transactions in Bitcoin between millions of people around the world.

Belo users will now be able to perform bitcoin transactions with the Lightning Network

“When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I took it right away”, said Finney in a 2013 post on Bitcointalk.org. “I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin. I mined block 70-odd, and was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent me ten coins as proof. I had an email conversation with Satoshi for the next few days, mostly me reporting the bugs and him fixing them.”

Running bitcoin

— halfin ( @halfin) January 11, 2009

Finney was one of the first people to reply to Satoshi’s message on the cypherpunks mailing list, and many in the space still believe that he was one of the pseudonyms behind the creation of Bitcoin. Sadly, the legendary cryptocurrency pioneer passed away from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 2014. Today would have turned 65 .

When the first BTC was sent, there was not even a cash value associated with the cryptoasset, whose blockchain has accumulated over 701 million transactions as of January 8. One of the most famous early use cases – the exchange of 10,000 BTC for two pizzas in 2010– helped pave the way for the crypto asset to end up being accepted in many bars, restaurants and even as legal tender throughout the country of El Salvador.

Bitcoin’s third largest whale celebrates the network birthday with a purchase of 456 BTC

Thirteen years ago, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were very experimental, untested, and largely unknown. Today, regulators around the world are discussing how to handle the integration of central bank digital currencies, stablecoins and digital assets in their financial systems.

In 2035, thirteen years from now, the BTC blockchain is likely to still have many blocks to mine. Some experts predict that the price of the crypto asset will reach USD 100,000 in 2022, with the potential to grow even more in the coming years.

Keep reading:

Belo users will now be able to perform bitcoin transactions with the Lightning Network
Bitcoin’s third largest whale celebrates the network’s birthday with a purchase of 456 BTC

Theory: Was the first response to the Bitcoin white paper Satoshi himself?

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Gary Gensler, Chairman of the SEC: “Nakamoto’s innovation is real”

The Early Days of Bitcoin and Dustin D. Trammell’s Emails with Satoshi Nakamoto
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