3. A Short History of Bitcoin
Virtual Currency Before Bitcoin
Although Bitcoin is the best-known virtual currency, it wasn’t the first. In fact, Bitcoin is just the latest of a multitude of schemes designed to supplement or replace traditional money.
E-gold
One of the first virtual currencies was E-gold, founded in 1996. E-gold was unique in that its virtual currency was backed by real, honest-to-goodness gold bullion. In essence, trading E-gold was basically the same as swapping gold ownership, but anonymously.
At its peak, in 2008, E-gold claimed more than five million user accounts. However, ...
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