Bitcoin

In February 2009 – i.e. at a time when confidence in the global monetary system had been rocked by the financial market crisis – a blog article posted by a certain Satoshi Nakamoto attracted considerable attention.

In it he wrote: “The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. (…) With e-currency based on cryptographic proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and transactions effortless.” (Source: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com, 11.02.2009)