My dorm room was next door to Hal Finney. He was a freakin genius at every intellectual endeavor he bothered to try. My fellow students and I were in awe of him.

But you had to get to know him to realize what he was. To most people, he was just a regular guy, easy going, friendly, always willing to help.

He was also a libertarian, and the concept of bitcoin must have been very appealing to him.

And inventing "Satoshi" as the front man is just the prankish thing he'd do, as he had quite a sense of humor.

I regret not getting to know him better, though I don't think he found me very interesting.

My money's on Hal.