1981 - 1983 - 1995 - 1999 - 2002 - 2009

Paper and metal money was anonymous money - its bearer, however they got their hands on it, was its owner - (for the most part).

1981, networks were coming, wallets were following. When?

David Chaum wrote "Untraceable Electronic Mail, Return Addresses, and Digital Pseudonyms", then in 1982, "Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups". Networks for the people, years away.

Even if facing the right direction, you could be too early.

1983, enter "eCash". Software stored it on a computer. Any shop that accepted eCash could accept it, like cash. The only signatures were cryptographic by bank. Public key digital signatures provided security, RSA blind signatures broke the bridge between withdrawing and spending. Still so early.

1989, DigiCash was born. By 1997, an MIT luminary was its chairman. But only one bank, Mark Twain Bank, in St. Louis, MO, was testing it for micropayments. After 5 years of grinding, only 5,000 users signed up, and bankruptcy was filed in 1998.

1994, the Internet 1.0 was just getting started but people were still used to credit cards, and exchanged privacy for plastic convenience. People wouldn't play "big brother" for years yet.

Plastic lust, and then Paypal won. "DigiCash", despite its promises, was small and centralized, the worst of both worlds, and went bankrupt - 'eCash' died. The cypherpunks fretted.

There was "b-Money" and "bitgold" but they could be hacked by cheap bots. There was "e-Gold", backed by gold, it got big but the Feds crushed it in 2008 - cypherpunks' fears confirmed.

The big banks and government had an iron grip on networks and money. They kept everyone hooked on endless plastic lust.

2009, a super shadowy romantic wrote a love letter about private electronic money on a network without banks or the government.

It was electronic love at first sight.