This is a “test” to certify the operation of the system. The 10 BTC involved in the operation would be worth around USD 340,000 today.
On January 12th, the international Bitcoin ecosystem commemorated the birth of Bitcoin (BTC) 12 years ago. In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto made the first transaction of value as a “test” of the operation of his system without intermediaries.
The creator of the pioneering cryptocurrency sent 10 BTC to crypto engineer and activist Hal Finney. In doing so, he would demonstrate that his innovation would allow transferring funds directly from person to person. This initiated the consolidation of a protocol that resists censorship and does not depend on the current financial system.
Finney had already been running Satoshi’s client two days earlier to interact with the network from his node. The developer posted the message “Running Bitcoin” on January 10th to record that he was interacting with the system.
“When Satoshi announced the release of the software, I took it right away. Besides Satoshi, I think I was the first person to run Bitcoin. I mined block 70-something and received the first Bitcoin transaction when Satoshi sent me ten coins as a test. I chatted with Satoshi via e-mail for the next few days. While I reported bugs, he fixed them,” Finney said twelve years ago.
The price of Bitcoin was zero then, but the 10 cryptocurrencies that Finney received then are now worth USD 340,000. Taking into account the current price of BTC, each unit is worth USD 34,000 per unit.
The transaction identifier allows seeing that the operation occurred at 3:30 in the morning and was 275 bytes in size. Currently, the operation already has more than 665,700 confirmations from the network. The activation of the original Satoshi client occurred on January 9th. Since that date, there have been at least 67 other versions that allow configuring the equipment to put it at the service of the network. The tasks that they allow performing include validating transactions and recording them on the blockchain. The participants then receive rewards in BTC in return.
Satoshi and Finney in the Beginnings of Bitcoin
Satoshi Nakamoto kept the emergence of the pioneering cryptocurrency under a veil of mystery since he did not reveal its progress. A short time later, no one heard from him again. Concerning Finney, the “first bitcoiner” received in 2009 a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Subsequently, he died in 2009 at the age of 58.
No one knows the reasons why Nakamoto chose Finney as the first person to receive Bitcoin in history. However, the reasons could be related to the American engineer’s interest in the project.
Before the 10 BTC that Satoshi sent him, Finney had had access to other coins. After mining block 78 of the network, the programmer received 50 BTC as a reward. Finney had reportedly promised Satoshi to return the funds, but he forgot to do so, and then Nakamoto “disappeared”. Finney may have sold his bitcoins in mid-2013 to pay off the debts that his medical treatment generated. After Finney died, his wife Fran has campaigned to raise awareness of ALS and find a cure.
By Willmen Blanco
