PakGazette – A remarkable prediction by Hal Finney, one of the most notable pioneers, has resurfaced after 16 years.
Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo reignited interest in the iconic prediction in a recent tweet. Sixteen years ago, Hal Finney had predicted a future Bitcoin price of $10 million when the cryptocurrency was still valued at $0.
Finney’s prediction dates back to January 10, 2009, one day after Satoshi Nakamoto released version 0.1 of the Bitcoin software and seven days after Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator mined the genesis block known as block 0.
Hal Finney, a computer scientist, is known for receiving the first Bitcoin transaction and tweeting about Bitcoin on January 11, 2009.
Finney is considered to be Satoshi’s main contender, although he denied this until his death in 2014. Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity remains unknown until now.
Finney’s $10 Million Bitcoin Prediction
Rizzo posted a screenshot of one of Finney’s emails dated January 10, 2009, which discussed how to value Bitcoin: “One immediate problem with any new currency is how to value it. Even ignoring the practical problem that virtually no one uses it will accept first.”
Finney predicted that if Bitcoin became the world’s dominant payment system, its value “should be equal to the total value of all the world’s wealth.” Expanding on this logic, it reached $10 million per Bitcoin.
Finney stated: “As a fun thought experiment, imagine that Bitcoin succeeds and becomes the dominant payment system in use around the world. Then the total value of the currency should equal the total value of all the wealth in the world. Estimates of total household wealth around the world that I have found range from $100 to $300 trillion. With 20 million coins, that gives each coin a value of about $10 million.
At a current price of $93,726, Bitcoin is far from Finney’s $10 million goal, but the prediction continues to inspire long-term faith in the cryptocurrency.
