Learn Ethereum - Second Edition

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Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

It is a common belief that the bankruptcy filed by Lehman Brothers, a Wall Street banking giant, on September 15, 2008, triggered the global financial crisis in 2008-2009. Excessive risk exposure to the subprime mortgage and financial derivative markets by large banks almost brought down the global financial system. The crisis was the ultimate consequence of a fundamental breakdown of trust in the relationship between customers and the financial institutions that should have been serving them.

Shortly after that, Satoshi Nakamoto, a mysterious and anonymous entity, published a whitepaper on October 31, 2008, called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, which is considered the origin of Bitcoin and all ...