Where Did Blockchain Technology Come From?

With all of the Blockchain and cryptocurrency craze over the last few years, often times the question of where exactly Blockchain technology comes from is brought up. For many new entrants into the Blockchain world, one of two answers is normally given. 

1) Blockchain was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto.

2) Blockchain was invented by a random anonymous group.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on your stance on the topic) neither one of these initial two ideas is true. Both of the ideas often stem from the same source as well. Satoshi Nakamoto is the alias used by the person or people that created Bitcoin. The true inventor of Bitcoin is still unknown to this day while there have been a couple people like Craig Wright who have attempted to claim Bitcoin as their invention and their claims have been met with some skepticism. 

The fact is, Satoshi Nakamoto as a person or a group of anonymous people, released the Bitcoin whitepaper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System" in 2009. The topic of Blockchain technology had already been in discussion for more than a decade by this point. A link to the original Bitcoin whitepaper can be found by heading here: https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/training/annual-national-training-seminar/2018/Emerging_Tech_Bitcoin_Crypto.pdf

So if Satoshi Nakamoto was not the first person or group of people to propose Blockchain technology, who was it?

In 1991, Blockchain technology was first outline and theorized by two mathematicians named Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta, in a research paper named "How to timestamp a digital document" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00196791. Their goal at the time was to work towards building a document storage and handling system where document timestamps could not be tampered with or modified after their initial submission into the system.

In 1996, a computer engineer and legal specialist named Nick Szabo was credited with pioneering the idea of smart contract creation and how it could be used for security in transactions without third party involvement. A couple of his initial paper from 1996 can be found here - https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/rob/Courses/InformationInSpeech/CDROM/Literature/LOTwinterschool2006/szabo.best.vwh.net/smart_contracts_2.html

Later in the early 2000s Nick Szabo was once again credited with his idea of creating Bit Gold (a precursor to Bitcoin) in posts dated between 2005 and 2008. https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/12/bit-gold.html Although this idea name fully came to fruition. Bitcoin's whitepaper came shortly after in 2009.

At the end of the day, Blockchain technology will be utilized to grow and leverage markets and resources in a manner we have never seen with the traditional fractional reserve system we have operated on for centuries. I believe it will become even more important to understand where the technology came from and the different iterations it went through over time. Understanding that Bitcoin was not the first theory for implementing Blockchain technology might a great starting point to dive deeper into the who or what was the source of Bitcoin rabbit hole. Even since Bitcoin's meteoric rise over the last decade plus, there are already more than 10,000 active public and private Blockchains in operation. This is just the start of not only a financial revolution but a revolution in data security, privacy, and ultimately wealth transfer.

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"BlockchainRPG is a Digital Item Metaverse in the faraway lands of Aurum. Hunt monsters, gain resources, craft better tools, and compete against others. BlockchainRPG offers a fun play to earn style gameplay. Earn GOLD and rare NFTs while playing. Trade/Buy/Sell your in-game items with other players to assist each other in your adventures! Let your blockchain adventure begin!"

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