6. Is Satoshi Nakamoto passed away or alive and kicking? Third Leave a Comment / By WeishaZhu / January 23, 2023 6.3 Hal Finney, Satoshi Nakamoto’s “Watson,” one of the great founders of Bitcoin

6. Is Satoshi Nakamoto passed away or alive and kicking?

Third

Leave a Comment / By WeishaZhu / January 23, 2023

 

6.3 Hal Finney, Satoshi Nakamoto’s “Watson,” one of the great founders of Bitcoin

Born in 1956, Hal Finney lived in the Pacific Time Zone and died in Arizona in August 2014. He was an active cypherpunk whose ideas for reusable proof of work (RPOW) are embodied in Nick Szabo’s Bitgold, one of the sources of the concept for Bitcoin. Nick said Bitcoin is a narrow field that “Myself, Wei Dai, and Hal Finney were the only people I know who liked the idea.” (9)

If guessing Hal is Satoshi Nakamoto is not outrageous, he is also one step away from Bitcoin.

An early conversation between two masters, Hal and Satoshi Nakamoto, It’s not like Hal asking himself and answering himself, is excerpted below for the reader’s reference.

After a lengthy discussion on November 9, 2008

Hal asks: (10)

“Sorry about all the questions, but as I said this does seem to be a very promising and original idea, and I am looking forward to seeing how the concept is further developed. It would be helpful to see a more process oriented description of the idea, with concrete details of the data structures for the various objects (coins, blocks, transactions), the data which is included in messages, and algorithmic descriptions of the procedures for handling the various events which would occur in this system. You mentioned that you are working on an implementation, but I think a more formal, text description of the system would be a helpful next step.”

Satoshi Nakamoto replies:

“I appreciate your questions. I actually did this kind of backwards. I had to write all the code before I could convince myself that I could solve every problem, then I wrote the paper. I think I will be able to release the code sooner than I could write a detailed spec. You’re already right about most of your assumptions where you filled in the blanks.”

Satoshi Nakamoto never wrote detailed specifications. As a result, there is no exact specification for Bitcoin, causing none of the blockchain projects to have one. That’s why there is various white papers analysis. Without this analysis if not technical experts do not easily read the white paper. And Hal is slightly older, and detailed specs are a requirement for old-school software engineers. You can see the generation difference between the two. Note this quote from Satoshi Nakamoto: “You’re already right about most of your assumptions, “which Hal obviously understands and corroborates the correctness of Nick’s words. Here’s their conversation in the cryptography community, where the Bitcoin white paper was posted and met with cynicism because not many people know how to do it.

After a lengthy discussion on November 9, 2008

Hal asks: (11)

“The bitcoin system turns out to be socially useful and valuable, so that node operators feel that they are making a beneficial contribution to the world by their efforts (similar to the various ‘@Home’ compute projects where people volunteer their compute resources for good causes).

“In this case it seems to me that simple altruism can suffice to keep the network running properly.”

Satoshi Nakamoto replies:

https://chainless.hk/2023/01/23/6-is-satoshi-nakamoto-passed-away-or-alive-and-kicking/