HistoryofBitcoin 1 month ago

Before #Bitcoin, there was #Ecash. David Chaum’s #Digicash, built on blind signatures, was one of the first serious attempts at true digital cash. At one point, there were even rumours that Microsoft and Visa were seriously interested, and several Cypherpunks went to work at Digicash to help push the tech forward. But Ecash never really went mainstream. Usage stayed low. Some said there wasn’t enough demand for digital cash yet. Others felt Chaum didn’t have the business skills to scale it into the wider financial world. By 1997, after leadership changes and a move to Silicon Valley, Digicash filed for bankruptcy. Still, its impact was huge. It proved to a whole generation of hackers, cryptographers, and privacy activists that digital cash was technically possible. The idea worked – it just needed a different architecture and a different moment in time. Bitcoin would eventually be both. We captured this moment in The History of Bitcoin by Smashtoshi with the artwork: “SEEING THE VALUE OF BLIND SIGNATURES” by Jack Kaido (thisjackkaido). It appears in the Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline. Read the full article by Aaron van Wirdum:

History of Bitcoin

Seeing the Value of Blind Signatures

Public key cryptography underpins cryptocurrency, proving Bitcoin ownership through private and public keys. David Chaum’s blind signatures pione...

HistoryofBitcoin 1 month ago

Before #Bitcoin, there were #Cypherpunks. A small group of hackers, cryptographers, and privacy activists came together around a simple mission: implement cryptographic protocols in software. They met around San Francisco and launched a mailing list that quickly became legendary – about 2,000 subscribers and around 2,000 emails a month. It turned into the main public forum to discuss the future of the internet and the Cypherpunk mission. As Eric Hughes wrote in A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto: “Cypherpunks write code.” And they did: anonymous remailers to hide email metadata PGP, giving people private communication online for the first time early experiments with electronic cash – digital money for anonymous use on the internet Some of the Cypherpunks whose work shaped this era: Nick Szabo, Adam Back, Igor Chudov, John Gilmore, Perry Metzger, Marc Andreessen, Vipul Ved Prakash and many more. We captured this moment in The History of Bitcoin by Smashtoshi with the artwork: “CYPHERPUNK: A MEETING OF MINDS” by Cypherpunk Now. It appears in the Collector’s Book and on our interactive timeline. Read the full article by Aaron van Wirdum:

History of Bitcoin

Cypherpunks: A Meeting of Minds

The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto predicted a future where cryptography protects privacy. Two decades later, its vision shaped the cypherpunk movement...

HistoryofBitcoin 1 month ago

Before #Bitcoin, there was crypto anarchy. Tim May watched his friend Phil Salin build AMIX – an early online marketplace for information. Salin imagined people buying guides, reports, software, expert advice. May thought bigger. The most valuable information wouldn’t be public reports, but secrets. Trade secrets. Classified documents. Information people would pay serious money for. He imagined “BlackNets”: encrypted markets where people operated under pseudonyms, traded information, and paid with electronic cash. Governments would try to kill it – but code running worldwide would be very hard to stop. May saw two futures: 1️⃣ A surveilled internet – every message, site and transaction logged. 2️⃣ A #cryptographic internet – strong crypto everywhere, individuals using electronic cash, reputation and proofs instead of trusting the state. That second path, he believed, would lead to crypto anarchy. In 1988 he wrote The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto and handed it out at Crypto ’88. A quiet beginning to the revolution Bitcoin would later ignite. We’ve captured this moment in The History of Bitcoin by Smashtoshi with the artwork “MAKING A MANIFESTO” by @nicedayJules overon X, featured in the Collector’s Book and our interactive timeline. Read the full article by Aaron van Wirdum here: 🔗

History of Bitcoin

Making a Manifesto

The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, written in just 500 words, foresaw privacy relying on cryptography. Its ideas later fuelled the cypherpunk movement...

#Art #BitcoinArt #Zap ⚡️

HistoryofBitcoin 1 month ago

The History of Bitcoin - Launch 4.5 years. 128 artists. 100+ pioneer interviews. 300+ contributors. Born of open, global collaboration, this project mirrors the spirit that forged Bitcoin itself. What it is A free, deeply researched interactive timeline of Bitcoin’s history. An ultra-premium Collector’s Edition art book. A singular First Edition auctioned in support of My First Bitcoin. The Timeline 128 key moments - from cypherpunk origins to the mavericks who advanced Bitcoin. Free, forever. The Book Collector’s Edition: 256 pages, gallery-quality papers, limited to 2,140 copies, presented with a steel stand engraved with the Bitcoin Whitepaper. Each book carries a unique fragment of Bitcoin’s original source code, together forming the complete codebase, forever linking every collector. The First Edition (1-of-1) Housed in a museum-grade enclosure carved from 5,000-year-old fossilised oak, featuring a Bitcoin emblem by #AspreyStudio. Auction by @Scarce.City in partnership with Bitcoin MENA @The Bitcoin Conference. Proceeds to My First Bitcoin. Dates & Events Public sale: 10 December. Sign up now for 48-hour early access. First events: London • Amsterdam • Manchester • New York • Dubai • Abu Dhabi. Explore & RSVP Timeline: