Hal is obviously the man. You think my note was a way to put Adam above Hal or vice versa? Come on man. Adam is alive & well & still humbly driving BTC forward. Thatâs kind of a fact.
Btw, he did read the white paper. He actually helped validate parts of it because he was mentioned IN THE WHITEPAPER. Fucksake.
In the emails that were exchanged between the two, Adam Back admits he didnât read the paper Satoshi sent through. Thatâs what i was referring to. When satoshi responds back, he literally quotes Hal finneyâs description of bitcoinâs innovation, because Hal actually did read the white paper and contributed more than just a few passing references to existing cryptography papers.
By âmoreâ I mean in discussions on the mailing list and by running bitcoin early on etc.
Adamâs hash cash was certainly a major contribution(as you mentioned itâs cited and was the point of satoshiâs initial email) but it seems from these emails Adam kinda glossed over satoshi for a number of years early on. 
