How Bitcoin started — and how a chain of blocks got a name

Long before a bitcoin last sat on a board like this one, “crypto” meant cryptography: hiding a message, proving you sent it, proving you spent a token only once. Cypherpunk mailing lists in the 1990s argued about cash that a state could not freeze. That argument is history. It is not a personality you must buy.

David Chaum’s DigiCash tried electronic cash with a company in the middle. Adam Back’s Hashcash (1997) used proof-of-work as anti-spam — burn computer time so junk mail costs something. Wei Dai’s b-money (1998) and Nick Szabo’s Bit Gold sketched money without a mint. Nominative: those names stay with their authors. We are not them. We do not sell a revival coin with a similar title.

Most of those attempts died as companies die, or stayed papers. That is allowed. A dead paper is not a dare to size a live coin. A living paper is not a coupon either. Human: the first time you hear “trustless,” count the things you still have to trust — the software, a desk, your own hands. Then we get back to the record.

When a pitch says “the cypherpunks wanted this token,” they borrowed a lab coat. Ask what the token actually does. Then look. Do not buy. Not a broker.