A storied cypherpunk, Hal Finney tragically only contributed code briefly at the earliest days of Bitcoin and was absent for much of 2009 and 2010 as he struggled to regain his health. 

Still, Finney’s influence today rings far and wide, most notably for the enduring optimism with which he approached the project. 

Finney, who passed away in 2014 at 58, was also the recipient of the first-ever bitcoin transaction, and the only person known to have transacted directly with Satoshi Nakamoto. 

Among his blog posts are some of the most widely quoted moments from the project’s history, including his initial calculations on how, if successful, bitcoin could someday be worth millions should it grow to denominate global economic exchange.

Elsewhere, Finney has even been credited with his own branch of philosophy on how Bitcoin might scale, the term “Finnian view” coming to denote his belief that second-layer networks, as well as bitcoin banks, would help solve the technology’s struggles to accommodate demand.