Today, the day of the fourth Bitcoin halvedTHE Human Rights Foundation (HRF) announced the Finney Prize for Freedomcommemorating the work of Hal Finney, one of the first public champions of Bitcoin.
Today, HRF launches the Finney Freedom Prize to honor Hal Finney, a champion of privacy, open source software, and e-money.
The 1 BTC price celebrates those who do the most for Bitcoin and freedom in every halving era.
Let it inspire many more Hals✌️ pic.twitter.com/X4EqMEeIoM
— Alex Gladstein 🌋 ⚡ (@gladstein) April 19, 2024
The prize will be awarded to the individual or institution that does the most for Bitcoin and human rights during each halving era, and the recipient will receive a monetary reward of 1 BTC.
“We wanted to inspire people to use Bitcoin to advance human rights – to help more people achieve economic liberation around the world – and we thought creating a price that could be persistent throughout the first Bitcoin life cycle would be one way to achieve this. ” Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer of the Human Rights Foundation, told Bitcoin Magazine.
“The halving is a very important day. “It’s something everyone can celebrate, no matter what country, situation they’re in, or who they are, and it’s the perfect time to announce a Bitcoin-related price,” he said. he adds.
The winner, or winner, for the period 2009-2012 is Hal Finney himself, and his prize of 1 BTC will go to “causes that matter to Hal's family,” according to Gladstein.
The HRF will work with the Finney family to appoint a seven-person “Genesis Committee” which will select the winners for the periods 2012-2016, 2016-2020 and 2020-2024. Starting from the period 2024-2028, a new committee will be formed to select the winner of the prize.
A maximum of two winners can be selected for each era. If two winners are selected, each winner will receive 50 million satoshis (half of a bitcoin).
To be considered for the award, individuals or institutions must excel in the following areas:
- Educate a large number of people about Bitcoin
- Demonstrate how people can exercise financial freedom by being their own bank using Bitcoin
- Making notable contributions to the Bitcoin codebase
- Help make Bitcoin more accessible to the average person, especially those living under authoritarian regimes.
- Following in Hal's footsteps for digital privacy
A total of 33 Finney Freedom Prizes will be awarded, one for each Bitcoin halving period. The prize will be awarded until the 2130s, when the last Bitcoin block is expected to be mined. Prize cash flow is publicly verifiable here.
So, can we consider the Finney Freedom Prize to be the Nobel Prize for Bitcoin?
“To the extent that the Nobel Peace Prize or the Nobel Prize in Economics inspires people, yes,” Gladstein told Bitcoin Magazine. “We want people to be inspired to be like Hal, to think about more than just themselves, and to expand this tool so it's accessible to more people.”