Episode notes
In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, Aaron and Sjors discuss two more electronic cash projects that predate Bitcoin: Wei Dai’s b-money and Hal Finney’s RPOW. As detailed in Aaron’s new book, The Genesis Book, these systems introduced design elements that were later utilized by Satoshi Nakamoto. Aaron and Sjors explain what these elements are, and how the inspired Bitcoin’s design.
To buy Aaron’s new book, visit www.thegenesisbook.com.
Mentioned:
B-money (archive link): https://web.archive.org/web/20050211031649/http://www.eskimo.com/~weidai/bmoney.txt
RPOW (archive link): https://nakamotoinstitute.org/finney/rpow/index.html
Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction and COLDCARD sponsor
00:01:37 Wei Dai’s b-money and its cypherpunk origins
00:04:57 Shared ledgers, double spending and server consensus
00:12:34 Monetary policy and stable purchasing power
00:17:34 Proof-of-work auctions and b-money’s legacy
00:22:46 Hal Finney’s RPOW: reusable proof of work
00:29:14 Remote attestation and trust in IBM
00:34:55 Why RPOW never took off
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This episode’s sponsor: CoinKite, maker of the ColdCard
Aaron’s Twitter: @AaronvanW
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Sjors’ Twitter: @provoost
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