Exactly 15 years ago today, Hal Finney tweeted that he was “Running bitcoin”.

This was the 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 time that #Bitcoin would be mentioned on Twitter, shortly after Hal started running the Bitcoin protocol on his computer. He was the first person to do so, other than Satoshi Nakamoto.

And no, it’s 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 unlikely that Hal Finney was Satoshi Nakamoto. Recently, evidence has come to light in the form of a timestamped email conversation between Satoshi and Mike Hearn, which show they were sent 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝟭𝟬 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲.

This, along with Hal’s repeated denials of being Satoshi, his reputation for 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆, and his coding style being *notably different* from Satoshi’s, make it 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗛𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝗼𝘀𝗵𝗶.

Today, untold thousands are running Bitcoin on their personal computers, just like Hal. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬, and improves the robustness of a money that enables individual empowerment for all who use it.

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂, 𝗛𝗮𝗹, 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻. Had you not chosen to assist Satoshi Nakamoto when no one else would, we may not be where we are today.🧡