The principle of cryptography behind bitcoin goes back to 1990s and the research of David Chaum, founder of DigiCash and International Association for Cryptology Research. DigiCash sought to establish and develop protocols for electronic money transactions, but their approach was still centralized and therefore traceable. In 1998 DigiCash declared bankruptcy and its founder left the company.
Chaum’s pioneering work was further developed and carried on by many researchers who remain unseen and unknown. Then, in 2009, the term cryptocurrency was introduced to the public, at the same time the BitCoin network was first launched. BitCoin was the brainchild of Satoshi Nakamoto. The name is there, but the actual person bearing it remains incognito; there are numerous speculations about Nakamoto’s identity, who, according to various sources, might actually be European, Australian, or in fact a whole team of developers, hiding behind a single makeshift name. The fact of the matter is that the BitCoin network had been in development from 2007 to 2009, and then its founder Nakamoto allegedly left the project after its launch.
