Wikipedia defines “Bitcoin” as follows (2018-05-26):
Bitcoin (₿) is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or single administrator. The system was designed to work as a peer-to-peer network, a network in which transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes through the use of cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin was invented by an unknown person or group of people under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and released as open-source software in 2009.
During the 90s era of the Cypherpunks Mailing List, most of the components that cypherpunks felt were necessary were largely solved and fleshed out. These included chains anonymous remailers which allowed users to send email anonymously without recipient, or any of the remailers, being able to link sender, content and recipient. This technology was essentially a precursor to the “onion routing” used in the Tor anonymity network.
One, absolutely essential, tool still eluded them though: digital cash. Academic cryptographer David Chaum had made some progress towards a digital cash system that gave transactional privacy to participants, however there was one major problem with all the known systems at the time. They all had central points of failure which governments could shut down. E-gold, was essentially an anonymous digital cash system that was issued (and backed with physical gold) by a company of the same name. This ended with criminal prosecution of the company’s founders by the US Government as unlicensed money transmitters.
Cypherpunks were left without this piece of their puzzle until 2008, when a person (or group) operating under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto” released a whitepaper detailing a viable solution to the problem. “Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System” outlined a system which was fully peer to peer (i.e. it had no central point of failure). Traditionally, a central authority had been required to ensure that the unit of e-cash was not “double-spent”.
To better understand the problem. Consider that to spend your unit of e-cash, you simply cryptographically sign it over to someone else and transmit that information to them. The money would then exist as a verifiable chain of cryptographic signatures (the transactions) going back to the issuer of that unit of e-cash. However there is a huge problem with this approach:
What is to stop you from making a copy, and signing the same unit of e-cash over to two different people?
How would those two people discover discover the existence of the other’s transaction? i.e. that the chain had forked, duplicating that unit of e-cash.
Bitcoin solved this problem via a global ledger that all network participants must agree upon. There are some very sophisticated game-theoretical incentives built into the system to keep everyone honest and using the same version of the ledger. I won’t dive too much deeper into the details of how this works, but every ten minutes a new “block” of transactions is added to the ledger. If your transaction is included in that block, then the network will not accept an attempt to double-spend. This is because the network is now in agreement that you no longer own that unit of e-cash.
This was a revolutionary discovery that re-engergised the by-now largely stagnant cypherpunk movement. It is highly likely that Satoshi Nakamoto is someone (or someones) who was active on the Cypherpunks Mailing List during its 90s heyday, and spent the next 10-15 years in search of a solution. At this point it seems very unlikely we’ll ever know who was behind the “Satoshi Nakamoto” pseudonym, which is, in a way, a great shame since their story is one that would almost-certainly be fascinating to hear. However, being birthed by a pseudonymous creator couldn’t be a more “cypherpunk” beginning to the project.
From Bitcoin, this paradigm shift has spawned innumerable immitations and attempted improvements on the underlying technology, many of which now have market-caps significantly exceeding $1 billion USD. Bitcoin itself has a market cap of over $128 billion USD at time of writing (2018-05-27).
With a solution to its intractable problem, this ignited a wave of new interest in the ideas associated with the cypherpunk movement. A new generation of people who were children or not-yet-born during the 90s are now exploring the possibilities opened up by uncensorable, pseudonymous digital cash and strong anonymity/privacy.
It is those people, technology historians, and nostalgic old-timers who are the intended readers of this site.
cryptocurrency tech bitcoin balance What is Blockchain? - Conclusionbitcoin co обмен ethereum gambling bitcoin bitcoin код bitcoin review
bitcoin обменники
flappy bitcoin форумы bitcoin ethereum телеграмм ethereum swarm bitcoin hyip bitcoin png заработать monero ethereum курсы bitcoin софт bitcoin mail
logo bitcoin портал bitcoin cubits bitcoin bitcoin background mineable cryptocurrency почему bitcoin консультации bitcoin iso bitcoin bitcoin surf
bitcoin putin bitcoin вектор bitcoin half bitcoin weekly
cranes bitcoin bitcoin презентация эфир bitcoin исходники bitcoin алгоритм monero bitcoin airbit wallets cryptocurrency ethereum кошелька bitcoin вконтакте login bitcoin стоимость ethereum bitcoin комиссия транзакции ethereum cryptocurrency price doge bitcoin bitcoin magazin ethereum хешрейт tether 2 blog bitcoin clicker bitcoin bitcoin multiplier
mining ethereum
daemon bitcoin moneybox bitcoin ethereum stratum bitcoin click bitcoin center приложения bitcoin bitcoin local
multisig bitcoin продам bitcoin
получить ethereum продам bitcoin установка bitcoin monero bitcoin loto основатель bitcoin
uk bitcoin
ethereum заработать half bitcoin рулетка bitcoin bitcoin автор bitcoin synchronization bitcoin click de bitcoin
bitcoin map cryptocurrency это bank cryptocurrency 999 bitcoin
обменник bitcoin bitcoin registration 4pda tether bitcoin установка bitcoin видеокарты
bitcoin фильм bitcoin etf bitcoin pdf bitcoin cracker bitcoin official bitcoin заработка разработчик ethereum tether майнить bitcoin machine bitcoin like bitcoin background майн bitcoin bitcoin png 33 bitcoin nova bitcoin avatrade bitcoin видеокарта bitcoin bitcoin гарант bitcoin price bitcoin картинки bitcoin стоимость card bitcoin spin bitcoin bitcoin coindesk bitcoin ru bitcoin valet bitcoin zona bitcoin фирмы ethereum прогноз minergate bitcoin обменять ethereum bitcoin кэш hub bitcoin truffle ethereum cryptocurrency market ethereum сайт takara bitcoin
bitcoin mmgp обвал bitcoin bitcoin png capitalization bitcoin ethereum api ethereum charts electrum bitcoin
china bitcoin ethereum ротаторы bitcoin habrahabr аналоги bitcoin bitcoin betting bitcoin virus кран bitcoin koshelek bitcoin ethereum dark habrahabr bitcoin trade cryptocurrency bitcoin icon bitcoin metal
cryptocurrency tech 60 bitcoin ann ethereum bitcoin widget cryptocurrency calculator bitcoin прогнозы bitcoin qazanmaq
byzantium ethereum
робот bitcoin total cryptocurrency monero майнинг
займ bitcoin
bitcoin eth your bitcoin
bittorrent bitcoin mempool bitcoin шахта bitcoin trade cryptocurrency
блоки bitcoin отследить bitcoin bitcoin проверить bitcoin betting bitcoin ixbt bitcoin аналоги ethereum news bitcoin check bitcoin plugin bitcoin cli nubits cryptocurrency ethereum метрополис bistler bitcoin monero майнинг roboforex bitcoin
cryptocurrency это bitcoin news 16 bitcoin bitcoin вектор bitcoin оборот live bitcoin алгоритм bitcoin
зарегистрировать bitcoin bitcoin openssl bitcoin official кран bitcoin bitcoin mmgp bitcoin основы faucets bitcoin bitcoin hardfork ethereum bitcointalk
• Collaborative custody to become an industry standardbitcoin aliexpress
bitcoin currency ethereum 1070 hd bitcoin store bitcoin bitcoin андроид bitcoin zebra перспективы bitcoin вложить bitcoin mine ethereum monero dwarfpool payeer bitcoin 600 bitcoin http bitcoin bitcoin community cryptocurrency bitcoin banks bitcoin brokers alpari bitcoin bitcoin buying tether download алгоритм monero ethereum кошелька bitcoin doge bitcoin википедия airbit bitcoin electrum bitcoin tether обменник
bitcoin код king bitcoin bitcoin hunter up bitcoin freeman bitcoin reddit cryptocurrency ethereum cgminer bitcoin youtube
ethereum twitter bitcoin серфинг ethereum ethash bitcoin терминалы bitcoin vector ethereum block bitcoin black coingecko ethereum bitcoin bcc bitcoin is Learn about Blockchain Developmentcronox bitcoin cryptocurrency news bitcoin multiplier zcash bitcoin bitcoin lucky casinos bitcoin alliance bitcoin
токены ethereum bitcoin maps сайте bitcoin bitcoin bbc bitcoin dynamics view bitcoin автомат bitcoin bitcoin sha256 bitcoin instaforex tether обменник bitcoin forbes email bitcoin
cryptocurrency magazine оплата bitcoin plasma ethereum wallpaper bitcoin monero pro запрет bitcoin monero client яндекс bitcoin project ethereum платформы ethereum фермы bitcoin bitcoin прогноз ethereum доллар обмен bitcoin теханализ bitcoin бонусы bitcoin
вклады bitcoin фонд ethereum monero address
cryptocurrency dash ethereum cpu moneypolo bitcoin bitcoin 4 bitcoin москва javascript bitcoin bitcoin gambling ethereum miner bitcoin сети bitcoin коды alipay bitcoin bitcoin опционы криптовалюту bitcoin
клиент bitcoin пулы bitcoin trader bitcoin bitcoin flapper abi ethereum bitcoin advcash курс ethereum antminer bitcoin bitcoin compare кран bitcoin карты bitcoin играть bitcoin bitcoin биржи bitcoin сатоши bitcoin yen email bitcoin testnet bitcoin 1 ethereum компиляция bitcoin bitcoin карта bitcoin department python bitcoin rates bitcoin lurkmore bitcoin
bitcoin gadget
ethereum pool reddit cryptocurrency контракты ethereum game bitcoin faucet bitcoin ethereum com bcc bitcoin сбербанк bitcoin продам ethereum galaxy bitcoin bitcoin pdf bitcoin код
puzzle bitcoin convert bitcoin cryptocurrency capitalization кран ethereum бутерин ethereum