Part 1The Blockchain: a Tool for Non-centralization and Disintermediation
Introduction to Part 1
As a secure, non-centralized, peer-to-peer ledger technology, the blockchain makes it possible to restructure entire parts of socioeconomic operating modes.
Even if many of the Blockchain projects, including the Bitcoin project, do obviously seem to be anarchist crypto projects, a current of thought called cypherpunk developed in the 1990s in the United States, with the computerization and advent of the Internet.
Several articles have been published by this group of cypherpunks, including a Crypto Anarchist Manifesto written by Timothy C. May, an engineer and cryptographer. According to this manifesto written in 1988:
“Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other in a totally anonymous manner. Two persons may exchange messages, conduct business, and negotiate electronic contracts without ever knowing the True Name, or legal identity, of the other. […] The technology for this revolution — and it surely will be both a social and economic revolution — has existed in theory for the past decade. The methods are based upon public-key encryption, zero-knowledge interactive proof systems, and various software protocols for interaction, authentication, and verification” [MAY 88].
Projects such as those by Wei Dai with b-money [DAI 98] created in 1998 and referred to in the Bitcoin seminal document [NAK ...
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