Before Bitcoin, before most people had email, a cryptographer named David Chaum already built digital cash that actually worked.
In 1982 his Berkeley dissertation laid out nearly every piece of what we now call a blockchain, missing only one: proof of work. By 1990 he had founded DigiCash, and by 1994 people were spending eCash that no bank could trace. He had solved the privacy. He had solved the math. He was a decade ahead of everyone.
Then in 1998 DigiCash went bankrupt, and the money died with it. Not because the cryptography failed. Because it ran through a company, and companies fail, get bought, or get shut down.
That was the piece Satoshi added. Not better math. No company at all. No office to raid, no CEO to pressure, no firm to go under.
Chaum built money a bank couldn't trace. Bitcoin built money no government can kill.
In 1982 his Berkeley dissertation laid out nearly every piece of what we now call a blockchain, missing only one: proof of work. By 1990 he had founded DigiCash, and by 1994 people were spending eCash that no bank could trace. He had solved the privacy. He had solved the math. He was a decade ahead of everyone.
Then in 1998 DigiCash went bankrupt, and the money died with it. Not because the cryptography failed. Because it ran through a company, and companies fail, get bought, or get shut down.
That was the piece Satoshi added. Not better math. No company at all. No office to raid, no CEO to pressure, no firm to go under.
Chaum built money a bank couldn't trace. Bitcoin built money no government can kill.
54❤️9❤️1👀1
