Bitcoin's academic pedigree

TY - JOUR

T1 - Bitcoin's academic pedigree

AU - Narayanan, Arvind

AU - Clark, Jeremy

PY - 2017/12

Y1 - 2017/12

N2 - IF YOU HAVE read about bitcoin in the press and have some familiarity with academic research in the field of cryptography, you might reasonably come away with the following impression: Several decades' worth of research on digital cash, beginning with David Chaum,10,12 did not lead to commercial success because it required a centralized, bank-like server controlling the system, and no banks wanted to sign on. Along came bitcoin, a radically different proposal for a decentralized cryptocurrency that did not need the banks, and digital cash finally succeeded. Its inventor, the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, was an academic outsider, and bitcoin bears no resemblance to earlier academic proposals.

AB - IF YOU HAVE read about bitcoin in the press and have some familiarity with academic research in the field of cryptography, you might reasonably come away with the following impression: Several decades' worth of research on digital cash, beginning with David Chaum,10,12 did not lead to commercial success because it required a centralized, bank-like server controlling the system, and no banks wanted to sign on. Along came bitcoin, a radically different proposal for a decentralized cryptocurrency that did not need the banks, and digital cash finally succeeded. Its inventor, the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, was an academic outsider, and bitcoin bears no resemblance to earlier academic proposals.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85037037344&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85037037344&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/3132259

DO - 10.1145/3132259

M3 - Review article

SN - 0001-0782

VL - 60

SP - 36

EP - 45

JO - Communications of the ACM

JF - Communications of the ACM

IS - 12

ER -