Hal Finney's Running Bitcoin
A historic January 10, 2009 tweet: 'Running bitcoin,' marking one of the earliest known Bitcoin adopters.
"Running bitcoin." Two words, posted by Hal Finney on Twitter on January 10, 2009. It's the most quietly important tweet in Bitcoin's history.
The context: Bitcoin had launched a week earlier when Satoshi mined the genesis block. Satoshi had announced Bitcoin v0.1 on the Cryptography Mailing List on January 8, 2009. Hal Finney - a legendary cryptographer who'd worked on PGP and authored RPOW (an earlier reusable-proof-of-work system) - downloaded the software, ran it, and tweeted those two words.
He was the second person ever known to run Bitcoin. On January 12, 2009, Satoshi sent him 10 BTC in block 170, the first known Bitcoin transaction from one person to another. In those first few days he also traded emails with Satoshi, mostly reporting bugs that Satoshi then fixed.
Hal was diagnosed with ALS later that year. As the disease progressed, he wrote a Bitcoin Talk forum post in 2013 reflecting on his early days with Bitcoin, his illness, and his decision to keep his BTC. He died in 2014. His body was cryonically preserved by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation - a choice consistent with the broader transhumanist current that ran through the early cypherpunk community.
"Running bitcoin" the tweet has become a cultural touchstone in Bitcoin. It captures, in the simplest possible language, what early Bitcoiners did: download the software, run a node, contribute to the network. That ethos hasn't changed.
Hal's Bitcoin Talk profile was still online as of October 2026. In his 2013 post Bitcoin and me, he wrote that he had mined several blocks in the first days and later moved his coins to an offline wallet, hoping they would be worth something to his heirs. See Satoshi Nakamoto for the only other person who can plausibly claim that level of early Bitcoin credibility.
Key takeaways
- Hal Finney was a key figure in Bitcoin's early development
- His tweet underscores how soon he supported Satoshi's project
- Symbolic of the community's early, experimental days
Corrected
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Was: The entry said Hal Finney corresponded with Satoshi by email about bugs and improvements through much of 2009.
Now: Hal's own 2013 account says the emails covered the first few days after he started running Bitcoin in January 2009, mostly him reporting bugs that Satoshi then fixed. Details
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Was: The entry said Bitcoin Core v0.1 was posted to the cypherpunks mailing list and that Hal Finney received block 70's reward of 10 BTC from Satoshi. It also said his coins, roughly 200,000 BTC or more, had never moved. We found no source for that figure.
Now: Satoshi announced Bitcoin v0.1 on the Cryptography Mailing List on January 8, 2009, and sent Hal 10 BTC in block 170 on January 12. In a 2013 forum post, Hal wrote that he mined several blocks in the first days and later moved his coins to an offline wallet for his heirs. Details
Sources (6)
- Hal Finney (@halfin) - Running bitcoin (X, 7:33 pm Pacific on January 10, 2009, which was 03:33 UTC on January 11)
- Satoshi Nakamoto - Bitcoin v0.1 released (Cryptography Mailing List, January 8, 2009)
- mempool.space - block 170 transaction, 10 BTC from Satoshi to Hal Finney (January 12, 2009)
- Hal Finney - Bitcoin and me (Bitcoin Talk, March 19, 2013): emailed Satoshi about bugs over the next few days, mined several early blocks, ALS diagnosis in August 2009, moved his coins to an offline wallet for his heirs
- mempool.space - genesis block 0, mined January 3, 2009
- Alcor CEO Max More, reposted by Eugen Leitl - Hal Finney cryopreserved (Cryptography Mailing List, August 29, 2014): declared dead on August 28, 2014
Related terms (10)
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