One of the factors that contributes to success in life is being at the right place at the right time. We should do our best but also, pray that time and chance should favour us. Take for example, Bitcoin wasn’t the world’s first digital cash. There were many proposals or other digital cash projects that laid the groundwork for its global success.
In 1983 American cryptographer, David Chaum published “Blind Signatures for Digital Payments’, in which he first proposed the idea of digital money of using a form of cryptographically-secure digital signature.
In 1997, British cryptographer Adam Back revealed his initial proposal for Hashcash. Hashcash used the proof-of-work algorithm that Bitcoin uses today.
In 1998, Wei Dai, a computer engineer published a paper introducing his “B-money” concept. The general outline in many ways predates modern-day digital currencies.
In 1998, Nick Szabo, a computer scientist known for his work in digital contracts and digital currency proposed “Bit Gold”
However, apart from the fact that these projects couldn’t solve the double-spend problem and one that Bitcoin was eventually able to solve, its timing couldn’t have been more fortunate.
In 2008 trusts in banks was at rock bottom and conditions were ripe for an entirely new financial ecosystem that would not need the reliance on middle men such as banks or card companies. The king of crypto was able to fulfil this need. It was indeed Bitcoin’s time.
“After hard work, the biggest determinant is being in the right place at the right time.” Michael Bloomberg
