--- title: "Bitcoin’s Prehistory Sam Callahan - Swan Bitcoin" description: "This is the story of the shoulders Satoshi stood on to bring about the Bitcoin Revolution." url: https://www.swanbitcoin.com/canon/bitcoin-s-prehistory/ --- # Bitcoin’s Prehistory Sam Callahan - Swan Bitcoin This is the story of the shoulders Satoshi stood on to bring about the Bitcoin Revolution. --- This is the story of the shoulders Satoshi stood on to bring about the Bitcoin Revolution. **Sam Callahan** ([@samcallah](https://twitter.com/samcallah)) The story of Bitcoin begins long before Satoshi sent his white paper to the Cryptography Mailing List in 2008\. The fight for privacy and freedom in the digital age started with the Cryptographers, and then the mantle was taken up by the Cypherpunks, and now, the torch has been passed to the Bitcoiners. Satoshi was no doubt a genius, but he didn't invent something new from scratch. Rather Satoshi cleverly combined existing technologies to create something new and groundbreaking, Bitcoin. - [Whitfield Diffie on the History of Cryptography](https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/whitfield-diffie-on-the-history-of-cryptography) (Peter McCormack, Whitfield Diffie): The history of BTC begins with the Cryptographers. Without these pioneers, BTC may have never come into existence. This is an interview with Whitfield Diffie, a cryptographer who recounts his time building in the space. - [The Genesis Files: How David Chaum's ECash Spawned a Cypherpunk Dream](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/genesis-files-how-david-chaums-ecash-spawned-cypherpunk-dream) (Aaron van Wirdum): This is a great overview of David Chaum, the inventor of the first internet money, eCash. Despite its failure, Chaum managed to inspire many people, including a group of coders who called themselves "the Cypherpunks". - [A Crypto Anarchist Manifesto](https://nakamotoinstitute.org/crypto-anarchist-manifesto/) (Timothy C. May): Another Cypherpunk founder, Timothy C. May wrote another manifesto earlier in 1988 called, "the Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" which basically predicts the fight between cryptography and the State over the battle for power. - [A Cypherpunk's Manifesto](https://nakamotoinstitute.org/cypherpunk-manifesto/) (Eric Hughes): Inspired by Cryptographers like Chaum, the Cypherpunks were co-founded in 1992 by Timothy C. May, Eric Hughes, and John Gilmore. Eric Hughes penned "A Cyperpunk's Manifesto" which laid out the groups' mission & beliefs. - [Why I Wrote PGP](https://nakamotoinstitute.org/why-i-wrote-pgp/) (Philip R. Zimmermann): At the heart of the legal battle was Phil Zimmermann's program "Pretty Good Privacy" or PGP. Phil wrote this letter to explain why he wrote PGP. He made the tech to limit the State's ability to spy on its free citizens. - [Cypher Wars](https://www.wired.com/1994/11/cypher-wars/) (Steven Levy): PGP was a software encryption program that made private emails & files almost spy-proof. The State enjoyed infringing on the right to privacy of its citizens before PGP came around and ruined the party. A battle ensued. - [When Encryption Was a Crime: The 1990s Battle for Free Speech in Software](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv8OFSWZkGs&t=4s) (ReasonTV): This video is a concise overview of the Crypto Wars in the 1990s. The NSA and other state actors were attempting to argue that Cryptography research not be made public. Cryptographers fought against this state movement. - [Why Bitcoin Now: David Chaum and Adam Back reflect on the Crypto Wars](https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-bitcoin-now-david-chaum-and-adam-back-reflect-on-the-crypto-wars/) (Laura Shin, David Chaum, Adam Back): David Chaum and Adam Back actually sat down and discussed these Crypto Wars and the time period on this podcast. It was interesting to hear them describe these times in their own words. - [Bitcoin and the Rise of the Cypherpunks](https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-and-the-rise-of-the-cypherpunks/) (Jameson Lopp): Since their founding, the Cypherpunks have been activists for privacy and freedom in the digital age. They've been in a constant fight against ever-invasive Governments to protect peoples' rights since the Crypto Wars. - [Hashcash - A Denial of Service Counter-Measure](https://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/hashcash.pdf) (Adam Back): In 1997, Dr. Adam Back released his paper introducing Hashcash which utilized something called, Proof of Work to come to a consensus. - [Bitcoin's Proof Of work: with Adam Back](https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/bitcoin-fundamentals/adam-back-bitcoins-proof-of-work/) (Preston Pysh, Adam Back): Dr. Adam Back describes Proof of Work in this podcast. It's a fascinating listen because he recounts his days with Hashcash and touches on what Proof of Work is. - [The Genesis Files: Hashcash or How Adam Back Designed Bitcoin's Motor Block](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/genesis-files-hashcash-or-how-adam-back-designed-bitcoins-motor-block) (Aaron van Wirdum): Here is another great article from Aaron van Wirdum discussing Hashcash and Dr. Adam Back. - [b-money](http://www.weidai.com/bmoney.txt) (Wei Dai): Inspired by Dr. Adam Back, another Cypherpunk Wei Dai had an idea to further expand on Adam Back's PoW and he created something different. He created b-money to "enable online economies that are purely voluntary." - [The Genesis Files: If Bitcoin Had a First Draft, Wei-Dai's B-Money Was It](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/genesis-files-if-bitcoin-had-first-draft-wei-dais-b-money-was-it) (Aaron van Wirdum): Aaron van Wirdum once again describes the story of b-money perfectly. - [Reusable Proofs of Work](https://web.archive.org/web/20071222072154/http://rpow.net/) (Hal Finney): Around the same time, another Cypherpunk was also starting to think about money and Hashcash, his name was Nick Szabo. He created a new money utilizing Hal Finney's Reusable Proof of Work. Read about RPOW in Hal's post. - [Bit Gold](https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/12/bit-gold.html) (Nick Szabo): Bit Gold combined a lot of things about Hashcash but in a unique way that very closely resembles Bitcoin. Nick Szabo's Bit Gold without a doubt inspired Satoshi Nakamoto in his thinking around inventing Bitcoin. - [The Genesis Files: With Bit Gold, Szabo was Inches Away From Inventing Bitcoin](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/genesis-files-bit-gold-szabo-was-inches-away-inventing-bitcoin) (Aaron van Wirdum): Aaron van Wirdum once again does a deep dive into Nick Szabo and Bit Gold in this in-depth article. - [Antiques, Time, Gold, and Bit gold](https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/10/antiques-time-gold-and-bit-gold.html) (Nick Szabo): One of the things that Nick Szabo termed was the idea of "unforgeable costliness" in the production of Bit Gold which made it scarce. This important insight was shared in this short blog post. - [Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System](https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf) (Satoshi Nakamoto): Nakamoto's White Paper remains one of the most concise and straightforward technical explanations of Bitcoin in existence. Satoshi sent this to the mailing list on 10/31/2008 and the world has never been the same since. - [Satoshi's Original Email Thread](https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=cryptography%40metzdowd.com&q=subject:%22Bitcoin+P2P+e%5C-cash+paper%22&o=oldest&f=1) (Satohsi Nakamoto): Here's the original email thread from Satoshi if you feel like reading a piece of history. - [The Quest For Digital Cash](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/bitcoin-adam-back-and-digital-cash) (Alex Gladstein): If you are looking for a piece to share that reviews everything we discussed here in this rabbit hole, I would share this one from Alex Gladstein. It touches on every part of this journey. Thanks for reading!