Intro to VC: The History of Blockchain

In my last two posts, which you can find here, I discussed the history and benefits of cloud (aka centralized) computing. In my next few posts, I’m going to shift to the other side of the spectrum and explore distributed computing through blockchain technology. Blockchain is a relatively complicated technology that is rapidly evolving so I thought it would be helpful to split this discussion into a three part series. The first will discuss the history of decentralized computing, the second will provide an overview of how the technology works (with posts on protocols, Dapps, and ICOs), and the third will detail a few of the most exciting opportunities in the space. Hopefully you find them interesting!

As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, I think that it’s helpful to understand the history of innovative technologies as it is difficult to understand where a technology is heading without understanding how it has developed up to this point. Therefore, this post is dedicated to understanding the history of blockchain and, more broadly, the crypto ecosystem.

So where should we start? The most logical place to start would be with the coin that inspired the movement.