115: Before Satoshi
29 July 2026
Bitcoin did not emerge from a vacuum. We trace the decades of ideas that made it possible, and revisit the early days when it all came together.
Hosts
Episode Links
- 🎉 Boost from the Web
- 🇺🇸 Buy Sats on River - The best way to stack in the US
- 🇨🇦 The Bitcoin Well - An amazing automatic self-custody Bitcoin platform
- 💳 The Bitcoin Company - Spending your Bitcoin Via Lightning
- 🏦 Fold Card - Pay bills Stack Sats
- 💵 SALT Lending - Get access to your BTC Value w/out Selling
- ⚡ Strike - Ultra-low fees, high trading limits, and easy loans.
Show Notes
- David Chaum demonstrates electronic cash at the first World Wide Web Conference (1994)
- David Chaum and Adam Back reflect on DigiCash, Hashcash, and the crypto wars
- Adam Back explains Hashcash and its original anti-spam purpose
- Nick Szabo discusses cypherpunks, bit gold, and Bitcoin’s predecessors
- Adam Back: Hashcash — A Denial of Service Counter-Measure
- Wei Dai: b-money
- Nick Szabo: Bit gold
- Hal Finney: Reusable Proofs of Work
- Satoshi’s correspondence with Adam Back and Wei Dai
- Satoshi Nakamoto: Bitcoin — A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
Plan B
- BETA | Plan B 1
- Just Getting Started | Plan B 2
- Flight of the Butterfly | Plan B 3
- Inside BitVegas | Plan B 4
- To Mine or Not to Mine? | Plan B 5
- Spending Your Coins | Plan B 6
- Amir Taaki and Bitcoin 2013 Wrap-Up | Plan B 7
- Then They Fight You | Plan B 8
- Bitcoin Will Disrupt Big Media | Plan B 9
- 90 Days or Bust | Plan B 10
- Be Your Own Bitcoin Exchange | Plan B 11
- Bitcoin vs. the Banks | Plan B 12
- Blame It on Mt. Gox | Plan B 13
- Winklevoss Woes | Plan B 14
- Bitcoin Must Comply | Plan B 15
- Summer of Bitcoin | Plan B 16
- Regulation Dooms Bitcoin? | Plan B 17
- The Big-Picture Perspective | Plan B 18
- U.S. vs. the Bitcoin Revolution | Plan B 19
- Bitcoin Is Legal-ish | Plan B 20