Bitcoin Prehistory

[VB1001]

This graphic reflects where the technology we have now come from in our homes, computers, networks, Internet, smartphones, virtual currencies, exchanges, to get here, many people have contributed their knowledge to the technological evolution we have today.
Some of them are very well known in Bitcointalk, thanks to all of them.

I have ordered the appointments chronologically with a link to the corresponding information:

- 1974 Robert E. Kahn / Vint Cerf TCP/IP = Internet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_protocol_suite

- 1976 Whitfield Diffie / Martin Hellman / New Directions in Cryptography
https://ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/publications/24.pdf

- 1978 RSA Public Key Cryptosystem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_(cryptosystem)

- 1980 Ralph Merkle Protocols Cryptosystems
http://www.merkle.com/papers/Protocols.pdf

- 1981 David Chaum Untraceable Electronic Mail, Return Addresses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Chaum

- 1982 Murray Rothbard The Ethics of Liberty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard

- 1983 David Chaum Blind Signatures
https://sceweb.sce.uhcl.edu/yang/teaching/csci5234WebSecurityFall2011/Chaum-blind-signatures.PDF

- 1985 Elliptic Curve Cryptography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic-curve_cryptography

- 1988 Timothy C. May The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto
https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/crypto-anarchy.html

- 1989 David Chauman DigiCash
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiCash

- 1991 Phil Zimmermann
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Zimmermann

- 1991 Haber / Stornetta How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00196791

- 1992 / 1993 Eric Hugues A Cyperherpunk's Manifesto
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg49471136#msg49471136

- 1992 Cypherpunk Founded
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypherpunk

- 1994 CyberCash
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyberCash

- 1994 Timothy C. May
https://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/cyphernomicon.txt

- 1996 E-Gold
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-gold

- 1996 NSA How To Make A Mint
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/money/nsamint/nsamint.htm

- 1997 Adam Back HashCash
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Back

- 1997 Nick Szabo Formalizing and Securing Relationships on Public Networks
https://ojphi.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/548/469

- 1998 Nick Szabo Secure Property Titles with Owner Authority
https://nakamotoinstitute.org/secure-property-titles/

- 1998 Bit Gold
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo

- 1998 Wei Dai B-Money
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/B-money

- 1999 Dot Com Bubble
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble

- 2001 Bram Cohen BitTorrent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Cohen

- 2001 Distributed Hash Tables
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_hash_table

- 2004 Hal Finney / Reusable Proofs of Work
https://nakamotoinstitute.org/finney/rpow/index.html
 
- 2008 Satoshi Nakamoto / A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

- 2009 Bitcoin Launched Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block


Source image:
https://twitter.com/bitcoinje/status/1091672330277961728

[VB1001]

List of quotes that are not in the chart, but are important for Bitcoin:

- 1991 Schnorr sigs patent
https://blog.bitmex.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/patent.pdf

- 1992/1993 Proof-of-work for spam
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.83.7634&rep=rep1&type=pdf

- 1999 Peer-to-peer (P2P)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer

- 1999 Byzantine fault tolerance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault

- 2000 Hash Trees
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/64398/files/idealhashtrees.pdf

- 2002 SHA-2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-2

- 2009 Hal Finney / Running Bitcoin
https://twitter.com/halfin/status/1110302988

- 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto / Bitcointalk
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5.0

- 2009/2010 Bitcoin Logo Satoshi / bitboy
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5126554.msg51268637#msg51268637

- 2010 Hal Finney / Bitcointalk
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155054

Other quotes:

- 2009 Bitcointalk / Founder Satoshi Nakamoto Nov- 22 / 2009 > Admin 2011
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3

- 2010 Bitcointalk / Pizza for bitcoins? 
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.0

- 2011 Bitcointalk Admin sirius 2012
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4

- 2012 Bitcointalk current Admin theymos
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=35

- 2013 Wall Observer / Bitcointalk / Replies > 467532 April - 2019
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.0

- 2013 I AM HODLING / Bitcointalk
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375643.0

- 2013 Adam Back / Bitcointalk
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178893

- 2013 Nakamoto Institute
https://nakamotoinstitute.org/

- 2018 Merit & new rank requirements
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0

- 2018 WO Hats By xhomerx10 / Bitcointalk
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg46916490#msg46916490

- 2019 10th Anniversary Bitcointalk / Notable Historical Publications / Bitcoin Prehistory
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5126554.msg53252600#msg53252600

- 2020 theymos is now the owner of the bitcointalk.org domain Apr. 18/2020 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5241347.0

[Last of the V8s]

links to the creation of the list https://github.com/Bitcoin-and-Markets/resources/wiki/Bitcoin-History
https://twitter.com/btcmrkts/status/964258271493345282

[VB1001]

links to the creation of the list https://github.com/Bitcoin-and-Markets/resources/wiki/Bitcoin-History
https://twitter.com/btcmrkts/status/964258271493345282

Well, I would have saved a lot of work looking for the links of each appointment.
If you compare the two listings in which you pass me missing links and luckily are not the same.

I will review them and update them if they have better information.

Thanks for your contribution.

[kryptqnick]

Wow, thanks for making such a nice scheme. I heard about some of the authors, but taking a look at what led to Bitcoin from historical perspective is very interesting. I was trying to offer adding something else to the list, but each time I came by something important, I notice that it was already included  Well, maybe I'd offer to your consideration the following book from 2001: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_(book). I don't think it said anything that was not said before, but it kind of united all of the different important things together under the word "crypto".

[dothebeats]

I guess Wei Dai's "B-Money" is the first practical embodiment of a decentralized network with PoW algorithm and that is where Satoshi got the inspiration for creating bitcoin. Amazing how Satoshi came up with such a well-thought system from the synthesis of a huge number of papers and articles, which further suggest that he (she, they) might be a well-read individual (organization). I'll have a go at these links again and revisit what i consider as noteworthy ones, such as Wei Dai's B-Money, Hal Finney's paper and Eric Hughes' Cypherpunk Manifesto.

[buwaytress]

Nice work. I've seen several of the names credited here, although some would probabluly argue there is an underrepresentation of some figures from the cypherpunk community. That's all semantics.

What's interesting for me as well is estimating if all these prehistoric fathers would agree that Bitcoin is an iteration of their work. Chaum, for example, cited in your chart several times, seems to be travelling and promoting some rather commercial project that seems to bear semblance to his work on elliptic curves. Do they see something displacing Bitcoin in terms of adoption and popularity in their lifetime?

[Kakmakr]

That one was worth the merit, because it gives a clear picture of what happened prior to Bitcoin, to get it where it is today. Some very smart people laid the foundation for this technology and Satoshi just put everything together in a unique way to make it work. It was there in front of everyone, but Satoshi had the vision and creativity to make it click. 

A lot of people think Bitcoin was something totally new and that Satoshi developed everything from scratch, but that is simply not true. The ingredients was there, Satoshi just put them together and he baked the perfect cake. 

[Beerwizzard]

Good job!
But it pretty hard to show BTC prehistory from all sides. In your case you mainly point out only technical points. But if you also want to overview BTC from economical point then you gonna need to take a look at prehistory of money.

The most obvious book:  The History of Money by Jack Weatherford
 

[Bitinity]

Thanks for the nice hard work for making the graphic of bitcoin prehistory. It is obviously useful for those who want to learn about the history of bitcoin and anything related to it.
If you do not mind, I would like to ask for your permission to share this great information to my local board in translated mode. Let me know whether you are OK or not with it. Thanks.

[VB1001]

<...>

Perfect, the more people know the story, the better.
Of course, you can post it on your local board.

[reda]

Amazing information for the crypto community. This is great information which all need to know in crypto industry and learn at the beginning itself. I suggest to you recommend this information to pin on any where for the people's wellness.

All the best once again.

[Zadicar]

Awesome list of all of the history of cryptography, if all of this is being binded it would make a book.

I wonder if they do have a complete books of it that would be awesome to most Bitcoin enthusiast.

[whirlcoin]

Thanks for your chart of the development of the system till now to the Bitcoin because in recent times the people are thinking cryptocurrencies will not have sufficient to make this economy positively but they will it will also had in the hands of cryptocurrencies this is my trust about this field.

[tippytoes]

Awesome list of all of the history of cryptography, if all of this is being binded it would make a book.

I wonder if they do have a complete books of it that would be awesome to most Bitcoin enthusiast.

This is a good reference for a student wanting to make a paper or thesis regarding bitcoin. I just hope that person will find this thread. Very few people are lending their time and effort to come up a thread like this.

[mu_enrico]

Nice thread OP! Now I'm curious about what will be recorded in history after Satoshi's Whitepaper.
By the way, why you put this thread on Economics board? This should be on Bitcoin Discussion board, right?

[VB1001]

<...>

Tnx.

And must hve to share to the B&H Section.

What is the section B&H?, is it bitcoin History?

<...>

I do not know the answer, but I think that in 10 years, they can have another point of view, markets, speculation, adoption, hardforks, Bitcoin is very young but in 10 years has lived a lot.

But if you also want to overview BTC from economical point then you gonna need to take a look at prehistory of money.
The most obvious book:  The History of Money by Jack Weatherford

Thx, I'm preparing a post showing deflation of the dollar and something else.

I suggest to you recommend this information to pin on any where for the people's wellness.

It is a good proposal.

Awesome list of all of the history of cryptography, if all of this is being binded it would make a book.

  Very good idea, if there is an editor in Bitcointalk, you have a lot of material available here.

This is a good reference for a student wanting to make a paper or thesis regarding bitcoin. I just hope that person will find this thread.

If I totally agree.

By the way, why you put this thread on Economics board? This should be on Bitcoin Discussion board, right?

"Bitcoin is an innovative payment network and a new kind of money." > https://bitcoin.org/en/

I could go in the Bitcoin Discussion, but the thread refers to the creation of a new currency or asset, Bitcoin in this case.

[madnessteat]

Thanks to this topic I learned a lot of interesting things about cryptography and I also translated your topic into Russian (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5127849.0) and added these two events for you:

- 2002 SHA-2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-2
- 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto / Bitcointalk
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5.0

Original: https://twitter.com/btcmrkts/status/964258271493345282

[legendster]

Great job with the chart!

I did a little digging of my own a while ago and the closest system that I found in history was UAIF's Distributed Object Technology.

You may add it to your chart somewhere in the 90's scale.

Link to my post here :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3351556.0

[VB1001]

Thanks to this topic I learned a lot of interesting things about cryptography and I also translated your topic into Russian (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5127849.0) and added these two events for you:

Good job, I hope you have a lot of success in your local board.

I did a little digging of my own a while ago and the closest system that I found in history was UAIF's Distributed Object Technology.
You may add it to your chart somewhere in the 90's scale.

Ok, I'll read to see what it's about.

Thx.