Hal Finney’s "2009 Running Bitcoin" Message and Its Lasting Role in Bitcoin History

On January 10, 2009, early Bitcoin contributor Hal Finney posted the brief message "Running Bitcoin," signaling the first publicly known node operating beyond the project's creator. He later received Bitcoin's first transaction from Satoshi Nakamoto, and over time his post has come to represent a key moment in the network's early development. Ongoing debate about whether Finney could have been Satoshi has been challenged by technical details and timelines described by other Bitcoin developers.