Len was a true Cypherpunk- equal parts Brilliant, irreverent, and idealistic. He has dedicated his life to upholding personal freedoms through cryptography, working as a developer on PGP encryption and open source privacy technology, as well as an academic cryptographer researching P2P networks under blockchain inventor David Chaum. He was also a pillar of the hacker community: a friend and influence to many of the important figures in infosec and cryptocurrency history.
“I see Bitcoin as ultimately becoming a reserve currency for banks, playing much the same role as gold did in the early days of banking. Banks could issue digital cash with greater anonymity and lighter weight, more efficient transactions.”
Hal Finney
"Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth."
George Washington
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Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System
A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. Digital signatures provide part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required to prevent double-spending. We propose a solution to the double-spending problem using a peer-to-peer network. The network timestamps transactions by hashing them into an ongoing chain of hash-based proof-of-work, forming a record that cannot be changed without redoing the proof-of-work. The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power. As long as a majority of CPU power is controlled by nodes that are not cooperating to attack the network, they'll generate the longest chain and outpace attackers. The network itself requires minimal structure. Messages are broadcast on a best effort basis, and nodes can leave and rejoin the network at will, accepting the longest proof-of-work chain as proof of what happened while they were gone.
Satoshi Nakamoto
“Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone”
Satoshi Nakamoto