17 Years Since the First Message Between Satoshi Nakamoto and Adam Back That Revealed the Idea of Bitcoin
Today marks 17 years since the first email between Satoshi Nakamoto and Adam Back, the inventor of Hashcash. On August 20, 2008, Satoshi reached out to Back to discuss what would later become Bitcoin, making this message the first recorded communication between them regarding the project.
The first message came four months before Bitcoin was officially launched, and the following day, Back suggested to Satoshi to review a research paper titled B-money by its author Wei Dai, a cryptographer known for his work in cryptocurrency. Discussions later continued on ideas related to cryptocurrencies until Satoshi informed Back in October 2009 about the official release of Bitcoin.
Back created the Hashcash system in the 1990s, which is a way to slow down spam emails, requiring the computer processor to prove it has performed calculations before sending the message. This system represents the prototype for Bitcoin mining, where a distributed network of computers competes to solve cryptographic puzzles, and in return for this work, new Bitcoins are released into the economy.
