Bitcoin was the culmination of the engineering work done by Chaum, Wei Dai, Szabo, Finney and a few others but it's launch was marked by the economic crisis and

Bitcoin was the culmination of the engineering work done by Chaum, Wei Dai, Szabo, Finney and a few others but it's launch was marked by the economic crisis and many of its earlier adopters are people who believe that separating money and state will have the same net positive effects that separating state and church had some centuries ago.