The 'What Bitcoin Did' interview with Aaron Van Wirdum about the Genesis of Bitcoin. If you've heard it before, skip to 1:19:20 and put it on 1.75x
"Both Bit Gold and b-money where '98, Hashcash was '97, ecash was also 90's, RPOW was 2005"..."Interesting backstory is at this point most of these people, the cypherpunks, had kinda given up on this idea, they kind of figured, it can't be done. Also noone seems to care, everyone is very happy to just use credit cards, and everything else. Paypal was launched at this point, people don't care, whatever I guess we are going to get on with out lives"
But not Hal Finney.
Skip to 1:34:50
"[Bitcoin whitepaper] was met with indifference and skepticism for the most part, and famously Hal Finney was the one exception. Again Hal Finney of course, as I mentioned, he still had this idea for digital cash in 2005, RPOW, long after everyone else had given up on the idea essentially. And then when bitcoin launched, he got interested and had one of the few positive responses."
I don't have timestamps, just my own notes of trying to shake people down to listen to a different 'What Bitcoin Did' episode with Fran Finney, where she goes over Hal's eternal optimism.
When he couldn't walk - okay.
Before he lost the use of his hands, he built an arduino project that would track his eye movement so he could still type with his eyes.
Later he didn't like his Stephen Hawking speech program so he reprogrammed it...WITH. HIS. EYES. And kept right on going.
Every one of those Earth shattering roadblocks, was just another problem to solve.
On more than one occasion, the path that led us all to bitcoin would have come to a griding halt if it wasn't for Hal's out of this world optimism and work ethic.
So, to answer your question, if you want a motivator, bring up picture of Hal kicking asses and taking names WITH ALS, and try to muster a hundred millionth of that drive.
