The Rise of Cypherpunks and the Origin of Bitcoin

Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn’t want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one doesn’t want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.

A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto by Eric Hughes (9 March 1993)

The birth of bitcoin in 2009 marked a revolutionary turning point in the world of digital currencies, but its roots go back much further. Decades of cryptographic innovation and the passionate efforts of the cypherpunk movement helped us reach this milestone. In this article, I’ll try to explain as simply as possible the historical milestones and key concepts that led to the creation of bitcoin, highlighting the contributions of various pioneers who envisioned a decentralized, privacy-oriented digital economy. Because bitcoin didn’t just appear out of nowhere, nor is cryptocurrency a new idea.

The Genesis of Cryptographic Foundations

The journey to bitcoin began in the early 1970s, a time of groundbreaking developments in cryptography. The TCP/IP protocol, introduced by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in 1974, was instrumental in the creation of the Internet by providing a standardized method for exchanging data between…