The debate over who invented Bitcoin resurfaces every few months, and this week, a familiar name drew the spotlight again. An old photo of Hal Finney, who received the first Bitcoin transaction in 2009, was posted on X, suggesting that people still doubt the possibility that he was Satoshi Nakamoto.
The post received over a million views in one day, a figure that speaks to both the community’s appetite for mystery and Finney’s lasting presence in the story.
Finney has always stood out on the short list of potential Satoshis. Not only was he a cryptographer with decades of experience, he was also one of the earliest to run the Bitcoin software and provide feedback directly to Nakamoto.
His background with cypherpunk tools like PGP, his long record of privacy advocacy and his role in shaping the early Bitcoin code base all fit the image people have of Satoshi. The fact that he lived in the same California town as Dorian Nakamoto — another name that was considered in the search — only adds to the mystery.
Why not?
Over the years, linguistic analysis has revealed writing quirks that do not fit Finney’s style. Additionally, logs of Satoshi’s activity suggest time zones and working hours that do not align with Finney's. Most importantly, Finney himself denied being the person behind the pseudonym.
Until his death in 2014, Finney maintained that he was simply an early supporter who recognized the brilliance of the idea.
What this virality of this post definitely proves, though, is that the question "Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?" remains unanswered — and perhaps unanswerable — keeping Bitcoin’s origin a mystery that no other asset in history can match.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team