*Foundational Ideas (Before Bitcoin) @

- **"Cypherpunk" Movement:**

Emerged in the 1980s/1990s, advocating for the use of encryption to protect privacy and counter the control of governments and corporations. Their email communities were incubators for digital currency ideas.

- **DigiCash Project (David Chaum, 1989):**

The first practical attempt to create encrypted electronic cash (centralized), but it failed due to technical issues and rejection by banks.

- **b-money Project (Wei Dai, 1998):**

Described a decentralized system for electronic currency similar to Bitcoin.