🧐 Decentralization: A story that began BEFORE Bitcoin! ⏳
Today, when we talk about BTC, ETH, and DeFi, it's worth mentioning that the idea of digital money without central control was born long before 2009. It was the work of cryptographers and the Cypherpunks community in the 80s and 90s.
Here are three key stages and concepts that made Bitcoin possible:
1️⃣ 1980s: The Era of "Electronic Cash"
1983: Cryptographer David Chaum proposed the first protocols for anonymous electronic cash. His company DigiCash (1990s) was the first attempt to realize this, albeit on a centralized basis.
2️⃣ 1990s: The Birth of Key Mechanisms
These concepts laid the technological foundation for true decentralization:
1997 (Hashcash): Adam Back developed the Proof-of-Work (PoW) system to combat spam. This mechanism, which requires computational work, became the core of Bitcoin mining!
1998 (b-money & Bit Gold):
Wei Dai described b-money — the concept of anonymous, distributed electronic cash.
Nick Szabo proposed Bit Gold, a fully decentralized currency that used PoW to create artificial scarcity — a fundamental idea for Bitcoin.
💡 Conclusion
Bitcoin did not appear out of nowhere. It was the culmination of decades of cryptographic research and the desire to create financial freedom. Satoshi Nakamoto merely combined these ideas and added an innovative blockchain.
