The wife of the late Bitcoin pioneer Hal Finney has announced a half marathon charity event in his memory

Fran Finney, the wife of Hal Finney, one of the most iconic people in the history of Bitcoin has announced that she is preparing a special event in memory of her late husband.

The event will be a half Marathon named "Running Bitcoin" as a reference to Hal's famous laconic Twitter post on January 11, 2009 when he first announced to the world that he was running the Bitcoin software.

The event will be held between January 1st - January 10th and its goal is to get as many people as possible to run a half marathon and raise funds for ALS research through Bitcoin donations.

Who was Hal Finney

Hal Finney, was a cryptographer and one of the first Bitcoin pioneers during its early years. He was the second person after its pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, to run Bitcoin. He was also the user who received the first Bitcoin transaction in his wallet from Satoshi on January 12th, 2009.

In his daily life, Hal was an avid runner with a passion for sports and marathons.

His life was meant to tragically change in 2009 when he was diagnosed with the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease that led to his untimely death in 2014.

Hal was a fighter to the end, and kept working even though his body was betraying him by using an electric wheelchair with eye sensor motion and accessed his computer through eye tracker commands.

Since Satoshi's identity hasn't been revealed yet, many have hypothesized that Hal could have been the real Satoshi, or part of the group behind the Satoshi identity.

There are many arguments that corroborate the likelihood of this scenario, as Hal Finney fits the professional and intellectual profile of Satoshi.

He was a computer scientist with intimate knowledge in cryptography.

He ascribed to cypherpunk ideology, from where the development of Bitcoin was influenced.

He was the first known individual to use Bitcoin.

He received the first Bitcoin transaction.

Dorian (Satoshi) Nakamoto, a math professor who was erroneously identified as Bitcoin's Satoshi was a real life neighbor of Hal Finney for more than 10 years.

Last, his declining health due to his battle with the ALS syndrome coincided with the time when Satoshi disappeared from the Bitcoin forums.

If you would like to participate or donate in this event commemorating Hal Finney you can do so by registering on runningbitcoin.us

Let's run together for Bitcoin. The cause is worth it.

Stay healthy!

(Photos from pexels.com & the public domain under fair use / section dividers by @brando28)

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