gm creators!
I hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday evening 😎
In case you missed it, yesterday I made a "cypherpunk mafia" list of 21 brilliant minds that secured the internet. Without them, the internet would never have evolved the way it has in the last 3 decades.
You can check the post out here!
Today at a Glance
Today, I spent the majority of the day wrapping up furniture building, throwing out boxes, doing groceries, etc.
I'm starting this daily post pretty late so I'm going to do a different format today.
On my newsletter from a few days ago covering public key cryptography, Peter shared a link to his "Before Bitcoin" series he wrote up a few years ago.
The series is extremely thorough and split up into 4 parts:
Public Key Saga
The origins of decentralized systems and their need
Cryptowars
New millenium
For the post below, I am going to share my highlights and learnings from part 2, a 17 minute read on the origins of decentralization. It is primarily focused on David Chaum and his work for decentralization and anonymous transactions.
"Chaum was one of the people who knew where the World was going. He understood things that others didn’t. Deciding to focus on building a company (DigiCash), he would leave behind seeds that would ultimately bloom into the 90s cypherpunk movement."
- Peter
Let's dive in 🚀
The origins of decentralized systems and their need
What is the traffic analysis problem?
How do do you keep secret the knowledge of who converses with who and when they converse?
What is a Mix network? Used in Tor & Monero
Untraceable Payments
Patent 4529870
Chaum's initial view on decentralization
after having looked over his work and how he presents the concept of decentralization, I personally don’t think he understood the magnitude and importance of them at that time. -Peter
Prescient View
What is cryptography?
Never too late
Forming DigiCash
That's all for today's post - if you enjoyed, I'd love for you to share with your friends in crypto :)
Remember, all posts are collectible as well! Just connect your wallet and mint away.
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