History of Blockchain

Cryptocurrencies, whether it be a token or currency, use a technique known as cryptography; which is the conversion of legible information into an almost uncrackable code. Cryptography did not arise from cryptocurrency. Rather, there are traces of cryptography dating back to the Egyptians in as early as 2000 BCE. It evolved during WWII when securely transferring information was paramount. Since then, it has become the foundation of what is said to be one of the biggest innovations of the 21st century, blockchain technology. 

The first traces of blockchain technology date back to 1991, where Stuart Haber & Scott Stornetta planned to develop a cryptographically secured chain of blocks in which it was impossible to tamper with timestamps on documents. It wasn’t until Satoshi Nakamoto, the accredited brains behind blockchain technology, that blockchain became known to the world. It is not known whether Satoshi was an individual or a group of people, but whoever he/she/they were, they’re the brains behind Bitcoin. Soon after the release of the first whitepaper in 2009, Satoshi exited the scene and handed future Bitcoin development to other core developers.

It is important to understand the key differences between blockchain technology and Bitcoin. Bitcoin was the first application of Blockchain technology, whilst the latter is the underlying technology which powers Bitcoin and thousands of other currencies and tokens.