Before Bitcoin Pt.3—90s “Cryptowars”

If you ask people where does Bitcoin or cryptocurrency come from? You will get many answers, and if they are right, they will likely be vague jabs at the truth. What many do not know is that Bitcoin was a creation born out the cypherpunk movement. Originated during the 70s but formed in the 90s, it fought the US government’s injustices surrou

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In Part Two, I will be exploring his continued work on public key cryptography and his research on the need for anonymous communications, payments and decentralised services. His ideas would go on to seed the movement of cypherpunks, the movement that would go on to create TOR, Bit Torrent, Wikileaks and of course: Bitcoin.What is decentralized? Wh... See more

The Cypherpunks were interested in harnessing cryptographic tools to build anonymous communication networks and markets without government censorship.

The Cypherpunks used their mailing list to document various attempts at building an electronic coin network. This included “e-gold,” in 1996; an anti-spam proof-of-work algorithm called Hashcash by Adam Back; an anonymous proof-of-stake electronic cash network in 1998; and Bit Gold, a proof-of-work string of cryptographic hashes by Nick Szabo in 20... See more

FROM CRYPTOGRAPHERS TO CYPHERPUNKS (1990S - 2008):