HISTORY OF THE FIRST CRYPTOCURRENCIES

Cryptocurrencies became the talk of the town after 2008 with the emergence of bitcoin. However, digital assets existed for decades before BTC. The term “cryptocurrency” appeared in 1989, when American computer scientist David Lee Chaum invented digital money. He used cryptography to protect and validate transactions.

It was not until the early 1990s that cryptographic methods and software were successfully developed. This made it possible to create a fully decentralised electronic currency. In 1998, computer engineer Wei Dai, published a paper in which he introduced “b-money”. He introduced the concept of an anonymous distributed electronic money system.

Many people are convinced that the world’s first cryptocurrency was called Bit Gold. Such a currency did exist and was created by blockchain pioneer Nick Szabo in the same year as b-money. Bit Gold was inspired by the inefficiencies of the old banking system and the need to reduce the level of trust required for transactions.

While none of these cryptocurrencies ever became official, they served as inspiration for the modern cryptocurrencies that are on the market today.