It has been 11 years since one of the most important people in the history of cryptocurrency passed away. Hal Finney died on August 28, 2014, leaving behind a legacy that many still study and discuss.

This person wasn’t just an early Bitcoin enthusiast—he was there right at the beginning, when it was only just taking shape. Hal Finney was the first to run a node, the first to receive a transaction on the network, and it was 10 BTC sent by Satoshi Nakamoto himself. Can you imagine? The first payment in the history of cryptocurrency—and it happened exactly between these two people.

There has been and still is a lot of debate around the identity of Satoshi. Some researchers believed that Hal Finney was the creator of Bitcoin, but he always denied it. Regardless of who was actually behind that name, Finney’s role in the development of the crypto ecosystem is undeniable.

At the end of his life, Hal Finney made an unusual choice—he left instructions for his body to be cryogenically frozen, hoping that future scientists would find a way to bring him back to life when they could defeat the diseases that tormented him. This decision shows just how much he believed in progress and the future. Maybe, somewhere in the distant future, cryptocurrency and transhumanism will meet in his story.