On August 28th, 2025, the cryptocurrency community commemorates Hal Finney, an influential cryptographer and computer scientist, who passed away exactly 11 years ago. He is remembered as the first person to use Bitcoin after its release by pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto. In a tweet, Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo honored this pioneering figure, highlighting his early adoption of the technology and his bold predictions regarding Bitcoin’s future value. Finney was among the first individuals to download and utilize Bitcoin software upon its initial release. His contributions included mining the cryptocurrency and actively identifying and correcting system errors, later withdrawing from Bitcoin due to excessive computational demands, only to return for a short time before his passing. 10 years ago today, he received the first-ever Bitcoin transaction from Satoshi Nakamoto on January 12th, 2009, marking the beginning of peer-to-peer transactions. Finney also responded to the whitepaper published by Satoshi Nakamoto. His bold prediction of Bitcoin reaching $10 million in value remains a milestone in cryptocurrency history. Finney was diagnosed with ALS in 2009 and passed away on August 28th, 2014. Speculation regarding his identity as Satoshi Nakamoto arose, but he denied this claim before his passing. To date, the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains a significant mystery within the cryptocurrency community.