For the basic technology of blockchain operation and the history behind it, I believe many people have already known a thing or two on the Internet. For example, PGP encryption technology developed by Phil Zimmermann, open source software, and P2P networks-these are all precursors to the miracle of blockchain technology.
But how did all of these things come together to create Bitcoin as we know it today?
Cypherpunk
Cypherpunk
The informal meeting began as a purely private gathering, but later, it gradually evolved into a monthly meeting held within John Gilmores company Cygnus Solutions. At the first meeting, Jude Milhon (a hacker and cryptography writer who often uses the pseudonym St. Jude) dubbed the group Cypherpunk, a name that introduces the term cipher. and cypher, the two words with the meaning of password/ciphertext, aim to combine the ideas of cyberpunk, the individual spirit in the computerized space, and use strong encryption (ciphertext) to protect personal privacy.
At this point, this unremarkable organization began to expand. Perhaps even they themselves did not expect that it would trigger a revolution in the world in the future.
As the Cypherpunk group continued to grow, they decided to start a mailing list that would allow them to reach out to other Cypherpunk groups outside of the Bay Area. It didnt take long for their mailing list to grow in popularity and subscribers, and people started exchanging ideas, discussing developments, throwing in tons of proposals every day, and doing crypto tests. All of this communication was done over the most innovative encryption methods of the time (such as PGP), so everyones privacy was well protected - and the results were self-evident and peoples ideas were shared freely.
This combination of privacy and freedom has resulted in a wide range of topics being freely discussed, including technical ideas such as mathematics, cryptography, and computer science, as well as political and philosophical debates, among others. Although everyone has not reached a complete consensus on many things, as an open forum, personal privacy and freedom are fully protected-this concept is also above all discussion topics.
In fact, the basic idea behind the cypherpunk movement can be found in the cypherpunk manifesto written by Eric Hughes in 1993, and the key principle supporting his manifesto at the time was the importance of privacy. of conviction. Moreover, one can also see discussions of other principles in the manifesto, and now we look back and find that these principles were actually the basic ideas used to support and build Bitcoin.
Regarding privacy, the Cypherpunk Manifesto states the following:
In an open society in the electronic age, privacy is a necessity. Privacy is not secret. Private affairs are things that one does not want the whole world to know, but secret things are things that one does not want anyone to know. Privacy is made by choice Show your strength to the world.
To explain privacy concerns more clearly, the “cypherpunk” manifesto even uses some very practical examples directly related to everyday transactions:
When I buy magazines at a store with cash, the clerk doesnt need to know who I am or ask where the money came from; when I ask my email service provider to send and receive messages, they dont need to know who Im talking to To communicate, I dont need to know what I say and what others say to me, the email service provider just needs to know where to get the information and how much I need to pay for these services... Therefore, an open society needs an anonymous transaction system. Until now, cash has actually been an important part of this system. An anonymous transaction system is not a secret transaction system. When individual users use an anonymous system, they will only reveal their identity when they need to , confirmed by authorization — that’s the essence of privacy.”
Formally based on the above principles, people began to try to develop digital currency.
early attempts
The first attempt at this anonymous transaction system was Dr. Adam Back, who created Hashcash in 1997. In essence, it is an anti-spam mechanism that makes sending spam more expensive by increasing the time and computing power to send an email: senders must prove that they have spent computing power on the email A stamp - similar to the Proof of Work (POW) used in Bitcoin - is created in the header before the mail can be sent.
In 1998, Wei Dai released the B-Money proposal and introduced two methods of maintaining transaction data:
a) Each participant on the network will maintain an independent database, which records the funds information belonging to the user;
b) All records need to be saved with a specific user group.
In the second option, the user group that polices the recorded data is incentivized to behave honestly. To do this, they not only need to deposit their money into a special account, but if they behave dishonestly, they will lose the money. This method is called Proof of stake, and a specific group of users (or master nodes) will lose all their own funds if they try to process any fraudulent transactions.
Because Proof-of-Stake is so efficient, many cryptocurrencies are using or considering using it to verify transactions, most notably Ethereum (ETH).
In 2004, Hal Finney created a reusable proof of work (Proof of Work) by drawing on the principles of Adam Bakers Hashcash. In 2005, Nick Szabo published the Bitgold proposal, which builds upon the ideas of Hal Finney and other crypto projects.
Now we can see that since the 1990s, experts from all over the world have been working tirelessly on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, and have tried to solve many complex problems about cryptocurrencies. Said to be the smartest group of people in this field.
Satoshi Nakamoto Appears
In October 2008, an anonymous person (and possibly an anonymous organization) named Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper Bitcoin: A P2P Electronic Cash System to the metzdowd.com cypherpunk mailing list. . (The author strongly recommends that readers can read the Bitcoin white paper, which is only a simple nine pages)
The paper directly references Dai Weis B-Money and Adam Bakers Hashcash, while also addressing many of the issues that early developers faced, such as the risk of double spending (purchasing items multiple times with a single token). However, many cryptocurrency skeptics have also criticized this paper. But all this did not stop Satoshi Nakamotos wishes. On January 3, 2009, the Bitcoin genesis block was mined.
So far, Bitcoin has entered the historical stage of cryptocurrency. Although it has been questioned by critics and skeptics in the development process, it is undeniable that Bitcoin has been developing continuously.
