3 ms·

See also this 1996 NSA paper "How to Make a Mint: The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash", predating both Hashcash and Bit gold. http://groups.csail.mit

• andrewla 9y ago
  The idea of electronic money is old. What this describes is a Chaum blind-signature style centrally-cleared coin, which dates back to his 1983 paper. There is no protection against double-spends in this scheme (without the clearing agency taking an active role), and no protection against the central agency creating unlimited amounts of coin. Proof-of-work schemes like hashcash and bitgold are much closer to hitting on the central ideas that led to Bitcoin. It's like crediting Democritus with atomic theory -- yes, he's talking about the same thing, but in such a way that the final realization is so different as to be unrecognizable.