To begin with, the first blockchain was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to serve as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. That year, he or she posted a paper called Bitcoin — A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System to a mailing list discussion on cryptography. Therefore, we can say that Satoshi Nakamoto invented Blockchain and Bitcoin as its application. However, Satoshi Nakamoto’s real identity remains a mystery to this day. In fact, Satoshi Nakamoto may not be a person, but a group of people.
On the other hand, Satoshi Nakamoto might not be the first person to come up with the idea of blockchain technology. The idea behind blockchain technology can be traced back to 1991, when Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta (Scott-Briggs, 2018) conceived the idea of a cryptographically secured chain of blocks. In 1992, they incorporated Merkle trees into the design, allowing several documents to be collected into a block.
In addition, there were also previous attempts at creating online currencies with ledgers secured by encryption, such as B-Money and Bit Gold. B-money was an early proposal created by Wei Dai for an “anonymous, distributed electronic cash system”. His essay was published on the Cypherpunks mailing list in November 1998. Even Satoshi Nakamoto referenced B-Money when he invented Bitcoin. Another precursor of Bitcoin is Bit Gold, invented by Nick Szabo in 1998. Bit Gold is a decentralized digital currency but was never implemented.
However, blockchain technology did not gain traction until the emergence of Bitcoin. Since its debut in 2009, the price of Bitcoin has skyrocketed, though it turned south in the year 2018. Many people are actively involved in mining activities in the hopes of getting rich quickly. From 2011 onwards, many alternative cryptocurrencies or altcoins have emerged, such as Ethereum, EOS, Ripple, Ethereum Classic (ETC), XRP, Litecoin and more. Currently, there are over 1,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation with new ones frequently appearing.
None of the cryptocurrencies came close to challenging Bitcoin until the invention of Ethereum by Vitalik Buterin in 2013. The Ethereum platform introduced the concept of smart contracts and the cryptocurrency Ether. It is also a platform for ICO, crypto crowdfunding. Towards 2020, with the commitment to create a legally compliant, open, transparent, secure, and stable digital currency trading platform at the same time providing global users with high liquidity, high performance, low handling fees, and high-quality transaction trading environment, here arrives the born of Qidax on 26/7/2020.
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