Bitcoin

Pioneering work on digital currencies prior to bitcoin was done by David Chaum, who published on blind signatures as the basis for untraceable electronic cash and mail throughout the 1980’s. Wei Dai proposed B-money in 1998, which contained the idea of generation of money through the solving of computational puzzles as well novel methods for reaching consensus among network participants. Adam BackAdam Back introduced the Hashcash algorithm. Hal FinneyHal Finney later utilized Back’s hashcash when he introduced a reproducible proof of work (RPOW) token in 2005. Nick SzaboNick Szabo proposed Bit goldBit gold in 2008, a digital currency which utilizes a proof of work puzzle that is securely timestamped and contains links between transactions.

On October 31st 2008, an individual or group of individuals under the pseudonym Satoshi NakamotoSatoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin whitepaper called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System". The open source code for bitcoin was released on January 9, 2009. The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains unknown, however they are thought to retain the largest known bitcoin wallet containing approximately 1 million bitcoins. No bitcoins have ever been transferred from this account to date.