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Introduction to History
In 1983, American cryptographer David Chaum conceived of a type of cryptographic electronic money called ecash.[15][16] Later, in 1995, he implemented it through Digicash,[17] an early form of cryptographic electronic payments. Digicash required user software in order to withdraw notes from a bank and designate specific encrypted keys before it can be sent to a recipient. This allowed the digital currency to be untraceable by a third party.
In 1996, the National Security Agency published a paper entitled How to Make a Mint: the Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash, describing a cryptocurrency system. The paper was first published in an MIT mailing list[18] and later in 1997 in The American Law Review.[19]
In the 1997 book The Sovereign Individual, the authors, William Rees-Mogg and James Dale Davidson, predict that the currency used in the information age would be using "mathematical algorithms that have no physical existence",[20] which has led some in the cryptocurrency community to call the book's claim a "prophecy".[21]
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