Welcome to Super Simple Crypto!
In this post I’ll be taking a look into a question every newcomer asks: Why is it called cryptocurrency?
If you find this post informative please give it a like and if I leave anything out please post it in the comments!
Now onto the post.
The Origin Story
Every superhero has an origin story that explains their name. Spider man was bit by a radioactive spider, The Punisher becomes a vigilante after his family is murdered, Superman is ... super.
You get the picture.
Well Cryptocurrency has an origin story too. Most people will tell you it starts in 2009 with a mysterious man/woman/group (who knows?) named Satoshi Nakamoto. But we’re going further back.
Back to the year of Wargames, Risky Business, and Return of the Jedi ... 1983.
That year a computer scientist named David Chaum presented the concept for the first “untraceable” electronic payment system: e-cash.
(Here’s a copy of that paper: http://www.hit.bme.hu/~buttyan/courses/BMEVIHIM219/2009/Chaum.BlindSigForPayment.1982.PDF)
What made e-cash “untraceable” was the use of cryptography algorithms to make the content of transactions invisible prior to signing.
(FYI: Cryptography is the art of writing or solving codes. In this sense it’s turning transaction data into an indecipherable code)
This is similar to how current cryptocurrency systems work: cryptography algorithms transform transaction data into hash numbers that cannot be converted back to the original data.
Hence the name cryptocurrency is a combination of cryptography (crypto) and currency (a medium of exchange for goods and services).
Well there you have it. I’d love some feedback and as a newcomer to crypto myself I’d appreciate any insights you have!
