Daily News 19

Tag: Satoshi Nakamoto

  • New Clues Emerge in Satoshi’s Bitcoin Genesis Block Puzzle, but Mystery Remains

    New Clues Emerge in Satoshi’s Bitcoin Genesis Block Puzzle, but Mystery Remains

    A Bitcoin puzzle built from information in the Genesis Block has attracted attention from blockchain analysts and the wider Bitcoin community, but it remains unsolved.

    Bitcoin puzzle uses data from the Genesis Block

    The puzzle was created on August 23, 2026, using information contained in the Genesis Block created by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

    According to the Galaxy Research X account, the puzzle was hidden in human-readable text in Bitcoin Block 963,629. Its creator used the information to generate a wallet with extremely low entropy, which he said required no backup.

    Galaxy Research said the puzzle creator answered two questions intended to help others solve the challenge. The first asked whether the witness script was a hash lock, a multisig or something else. The creator indicated that it was a multisig.

    The second question asked how many keys were involved, what threshold applied and how the keys were derived from the Genesis Block. The puzzle creator answered that there were two keys, adding: “both required. The rest is for you to derive.”

    In a follow-up post on August 25, Galaxy Research said the puzzle jackpot had reached 125,779 sats and shared additional clues from the creator:

    “The witness script is a multisig. Two keys, both required. The rest is for you to derive. Both keys use the same Genesis field, and there is no hash. Both keys are derived independently from Genesis.”

    Puzzle jackpot reaches 142,779 sats

    Galaxy Head of Research Alex Thorn recently highlighted his efforts to solve the Bitcoin puzzle, saying he had been working on it.

    i’ve been working on this puzzle a bitthe jackpot is currently 142,779 sats (~$111)i haven’t myself sent in any requests for hints, but others have. based on the hints, we assume:- a 2-of-2 multisig- both keys from the same Genesis field with no hash applied- derived… https://t.co/afCkDj1Kxe pic.twitter.com/gFo5tFNZcK
    — Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) August 29, 2026

    In the X post, Thorn said the puzzle jackpot stood at 142,779 sats, or nearly $111. He added that he had not personally requested any hints, although other participants had.

    Based on the available clues, Thorn listed the following assumptions:

    “a 2-of-2 multisig, both keys from the same Genesis field with no hash applied, derived independently, along the BIP48 path root > multisig > mainnet > genesis_data > script_type, the field is one The Times newspaper printed.”

    Using these clues, Thorn said he had searched through more than 19.3 billion candidate scripts but eliminated them from consideration.

    Bitcoin’s Genesis Block remains central to the challenge

    The Genesis Block, also known as Block 0, is the first block ever mined on the Bitcoin blockchain. Satoshi Nakamoto mined it on January 3, 2009, and embedded the hidden message, “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks,” a headline published by The Times on the same date.

    The message remains one of Bitcoin’s most recognizable historical artifacts, and its connection to the puzzle is central to the ongoing challenge.

    The Bitcoin puzzle remains unsolved, but Thorn invited others working on it to collaborate in an effort to claim the jackpot.

  • 12 Years Later, Bitcoin Remembers the Man Who Got There First

    12 Years Later, Bitcoin Remembers the Man Who Got There First

    Before Bitcoin carried a significant market value, it had its first real recipient. On January 12, 2009, Hal Finney became the first person to receive a Bitcoin transaction when Satoshi Nakamoto sent him 10 $BTC. The event is now recognized as the moment digital cash moved from a concept on a whiteboard to a functioning network.

    Finney was not a random early user who happened to be in the right place. He was a technology veteran who had already spent decades developing tools that would influence Bitcoin. During the early 1990s, he was an active participant on cypherpunk mailing lists, a community of programmers and privacy advocates whose ideas helped shape Bitcoin’s design.

    Finney later became the second employee hired by Phil Zimmermann at PGP Corporation, the company behind Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption software. He remained a key contributor there until retiring in 2011.

    In 2004, several years before Bitcoin was created, Finney developed Reusable Proofs of Work (RPoW), an early cryptocurrency prototype built on Hashcash. The project demonstrated concepts that Bitcoin would later formalize.

    A Fight He Didn’t Step Away From

    Finney publicly disclosed his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis in October 2009, less than a year after receiving the first Bitcoin transaction. ALS is a progressive disease that attacks the nerve cells responsible for controlling muscle movement.

    In March 2013, Finney wrote that he had become “essentially paralyzed,” but he continued participating in Bitcoin’s early community as the disease progressed. He was declared legally dead on August 28, 2014, in Phoenix, Arizona, at age 58. His family then carried out cryopreservation arrangements with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which had been made years earlier.

    The Satoshi Question That Won’t Go Away

    Finney’s proximity to Bitcoin’s creation, his background in cryptography and his engineering degree from Caltech have fueled years of speculation that he was Satoshi Nakamoto or worked closely with Bitcoin’s anonymous creator.

    Bitcoin.com News has previously examined the evidence pointing to Hal Finney being Satoshi, presenting the circumstantial case that continues to resurface whenever the identity question returns. Finney consistently denied creating Bitcoin, and no verified evidence has conclusively resolved the mystery.

    What 10 Bitcoin Became

    The anniversary arrives at a significant moment for the asset Finney helped bring to life. Bitcoin’s price crossed $80,000 for the first time since May on August 25, rising approximately 28% over eight days and briefly reaching an intraday high above $81,000.

    At that price level, the 10 $BTC Finney received from Satoshi Nakamoto in January 2009 would be worth approximately $805,000 today. That figure would have seemed unimaginable to almost anyone when the transaction was first processed.

    Finney never lived to see Bitcoin reach even a small fraction of its current price. Yet the tools he developed, the questions his life continues to raise about Bitcoin’s origins and his enduring place in the answer to “who received the first bitcoin” ensure that his influence on the network has not faded.

    Twelve years later, people are still logging on to remember him.

    Source: cryptonews.net