>it was the guy in the wheelchair who died before bitcoin got really big. The problem with that guess is that the guy (Hal Finney) designed, implemented and de

>it was the guy in the wheelchair who died before bitcoin got really big. The problem with that guess is that the guy (Hal Finney) designed, implemented and deployed an alternative to Bitcoin, called Reusable Proof of Work. The alternative never gained traction, but was actively deployed for quite a few years (starting if I remember correctly before the start of Bitcoin and ending after Bitcoin had been deployed for a while). "actively deployed": the design entailed at least one server with constant connectivity to the public internet, which of course entails at least some cost in hosting fees and some effort at monitoring things. The server ran a few thousand lines of C code written by Finney.