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Like Bitcoin, the RPOW system was based on proof of work (Hashcash) to prevent falsification of its unit of account, and was based on a coin model for exchanges: RPOW tokens, like bitcoins, could be combined and separated to form coins of different values. Despite this resemblance, Satoshi Nakamoto never publicly acknowledged the existence of the RPOW system, and never granted it ex-post credit as he did for b-money and bitgold. So unless he has a good reason to hide it, it is unlikely that he was inspired by it.
However, Satoshi Nakamoto owes a lot to the designer of reusable proofs of work, Hal Finney. Indeed, the latter played a major role in the initial development of Bitcoin, by reporting the various bugs of the first versions and by promoting the project from the first days.
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Hal Finney's (supposed) encounter with Bitcoin comes very early, since the white paper was originally published on October 31, 2008 on the Cryptography Mailing List where he is active. On November 7, Finney reacted very positively to the announcement of this new digital currency project, declaring that “Bitcoin seems to be a very promising idea” and that “the idea of ??basing security on the assumption that the participants' CPU power honest outweighs that of attackers ”is a“ very modern notion ”. Regarding the person of Satoshi, he will say later:
"I thought I was dealing with a young man of Japanese origin who was very intelligent and sincere. I’ve been fortunate enough to know a lot of brilliant people in my life, so I recognize the signs. ”
Hal Finney seized the software when it was released in early 2009 and is probably the first person to use it, except for Satoshi Nakamoto himself. On January 10, Finney tried to make the software work, but it did not work properly on his machine: he therefore communicated by email with Satoshi on this subject. Finally, he mines block 78 of the chain that same day at 5 p.m. California time. In the evening, he hastens to share his experience by writing “Running bitcoin” on Twitter, which is the first occurrence of the word “bitcoin” on the social network.
The next day, January 11, he participated in the first effective transaction of the network by receiving 10 bitcoins from Satoshi Nakamoto. This is confirmed in block 170 at 7:30 p.m.
Screen capture of Hal Finney's client. (source)
Once the program is stabilized, Hal Finney continues to run it on his computer for several months: he thus mines hundreds of blocks and accumulates more than 10,000 bitcoins. Then he left Bitcoin aside for more than a year, before returning in November 2010.
It should be noted that, from the beginning to the end of his adventure with Bitcoin, Hal Finney is very enthusiastic about the potential for increasing the value of the token. In January 2009, he already declared:
“As a fun thought experiment, imagine Bitcoin succeeding and becoming the dominant payment system used around the world. So the total value of the currency should be equal to the total value of all the wealth in the world. Current estimates that I have found of total household wealth in the world range from $ 100 billion to $ 300 billion. With 20 million pieces, that gives each piece a value of around 10 million. So the possibility of generating coins today with the equivalent of a few pennies of computation time can be a good bet. ”
Thereafter, Satoshi will resume this way of thinking by saying that “it might be wise to have it in case it takes”, that “if enough people think the same thing, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy” ( January 16) and that bitcoin benefits from a potential virtuous circle because “as users increase, the value increases, which could attract more users to take advantage of the increasing value” (February 11).
At the end of 2010, when Hal Finney came back to find out about the progress of the project, and he realized that bitcoin had indeed acquired a price and that the first trading platforms had emerged, he realized that his logic is then applicable. On January 11, 2011, when the price of bitcoin was around 32 cents, he wrote in a subject on Bitcointalk devoted to the potential achievement of parity with the dollar:
“We are very fortunate to have invested at the start of a new potentially explosive phenomenon. Considering the odds against most investments that triple your money, bitcoin seems like a good place to put some of your wallet. ”
On February 9, the price of bitcoin finally hit $ 1, before skyrocketing to $ 30 in June.
Thus, Hal Finney brought something essential to Bitcoin: the promotion of the project necessary for its initiation. By being the first “moon boy” to dream of an exploding price, it helped to attract the greed of investors who wanted to make an easy profit. Over the years, the “self-fulfilling prophecy” has taken place: the price has taken off, and in doing so has attracted the attention of more and more people, some of them being interested. in-depth at Bitcoin and discover its characteristics. It was the first time that a decentralized currency project had taken place.
But, if he attended the bubbles of 2011 and 2013 which made him a millionaire, Hal Finney never saw the heights of 2017. He was indeed diagnosed with Charcot's disease in August 2009, and died of it 4 years later, on August 28, 2014. As a good optimistic transhumanist, Hal Finney was cryonized and his body is preserved by the Alcor foundation, a foundation specializing in the prolongation of life, near Phoenix in Arizona.
Hal Finney therefore marked the prehistory and history of Bitcoin in a preponderant way, leaving behind a strong intellectual heritage, mixing independence of mind, pragmatism and optimism. First, with his reusable proofs of work (RPOW), he was the last individual before Satoshi Nakamoto to attempt to implement decentralized electronic money. Secondly, when Bitcoin appeared, it actively contributed to the project and greatly participated in its initiation thanks to its legendary enthusiasm. For this, we can be grateful to him.
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