A cryptocurrency is basically a timestamping service. This was mentioned in the original whitepaper. > The solution we propose begins with a timestamp server.

A cryptocurrency is basically a timestamping service. This was mentioned in the original whitepaper. > The solution we propose begins with a timestamp server. A timestamp server works by taking a hash of a block of items to be timestamped and widely publishing the hash, such as in a newspaper or Usenet post [2-5]. The timestamp proves that the data must have existed at the time, obviously, in order to get into the hash. Each timestamp includes the previous timestamp in its hash, forming a chain, with each additional timestamp reinforcing the ones before it. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf