💸 Bitcoin's banned predecessor: e-gold and the mystery of Satoshi

Before Bitcoin appeared in 2009, one of the most ambitious digital money projects was e-gold. Founded in 1996, this system allowed users to transfer and store gold online. Balances were expressed in grams of gold, and each transfer was recorded on the company's centralized server.

💡 What do e-gold and Bitcoin have in common?

- Both projects sought to create an alternative to fiat money.

- Both were aimed at global settlements without intermediaries.

- At their core was the idea of "digital gold," only implemented differently.

⚠️ But e-gold was centralized — the company controlled assets and transactions. This became its weakness: in 2007, the US authorities shut down the project, accusing it of violating financial laws.

🧠 This case had an impact on the history of Bitcoin.

It is believed that Satoshi Nakamoto took into account the mistakes of e-gold and therefore made BTC completely decentralized: without servers, companies, accounts, or centers of influence.

🚨 Interesting fact: PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel once admitted that he may have met one of the founders of e-gold on a beach in Anguilla in 2000, and he does not rule out that it was Satoshi.

💬 Did you know about e-gold? If you found this interesting, give it a ❤️