Satoshi Suspect #1: Hal Finney (1/6)

We start our list with the most practical suspect of the bunch. Met Hal Finney, a former game designer and an OG Cypher Punk. He generally tops most lists as possible suspect #1 and for good reason.

Support for Hal Finney as Satoshi:
Hal Finney has the honor of being the first ever recipient of a Bitcoin transaction. Back in 2009, Hal Finney wrote that Satoshi sent him 10 Bitcoins as a test of the systems capabilities. Additionally, he also penned the very first tweet about Bitcoin, stating that he was “running Bitcoin”.

It would make a lot of sense that the creator of Bitcoin would send the first transaction to himself on another computer. Additionally, Hal Finney stepped down from many of his public duties in 2011 after being diagnosed with ALS and that is around the same time the final public message from Satoshi was seen online. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Finney did pass away from ALS in 2014 – if he is Satoshi he may have taken his secret to the grave.