The Bitcoin Game #59: Dr. Adam Back

Welcome to episode 59 of The Bitcoin Game, I'm Rob Mitchell. I'm happy to bring to you part one of an interview with Cypherpunk and CEO of Blockstream, Dr. Adam Back. Dr. Back talks about topics such as his first computers, his early privacy-oriented work, Hashcash vs. other proof-of-work, various early electronic money systems, and his work on Bitcoin Confidential Transactions. Get ready to soak in some history from one of the people whose "work" became an integral part of Bitcoin. EPISODE LINKS Adam Back (Adam3us) on Twitter https://twitter.com/adam3us Dr. Back's Info Page http://www.cypherspace.org/adam Blockstream https://blockstream.com Malta (Crypto-friendly) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-23/how-malta-became-a-hub-of-the-cryptocurrency-world-quicktake Dr. Back's First Computers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum PGP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy Cypherpunks Mailing List https://cryptoanarchy.wiki/getting-started/what-is-the-cypherpunks-mailing-list Adam's Credential Library for Ecash & DigiCash http://cypherspace.org/credlib David Chaum's Ecash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash Stefan Brands' DigiCash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiCash Adam Back's Eternity http://www.cypherspace.org/eternity Usenet News https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet Pseudonymous Remailers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudonymous_remailer Hal Finney (integrated PGP into remailers) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Finney_(computer_scientist) Adam Back's Hashcash http://www.hashcash.org Spam Assassin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_SpamAssassin Microsoft Digital Postmarks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Postmarks SYN Cookies, by Dan Bernstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SYN_cookies Pricing via Processing or Combatting Junk Mail (PDF) http://www.hashcash.org/papers/pvp.pdf Old communication between Peter Todd, Adam Back and Hal Finney https://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/bluesky/2001-March.txt Wei Dai's B-Money https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/B-money Nick Szabo's Bit Gold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Szabo#Bit_gold Hal Finney's RPOW - Reusable Proof of Work https://nakamotoinstitute.org/finney/rpow/index.html TPM - Trusted Platform Module https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module Confidential Transactions https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/confidential-transactions-how-hiding-transaction-amounts-increases-bitcoin-privacy-1464892525 Elements (Sidechain) https://elementsproject.org Liquid (Sidechain) https://blockstream.com/liquid STAY IN TOUCH Thanks so much for taking the time to listen to The Bitcoin Game! https://Twitter.com/TheBTCGame http://TheBitcoinGame.com [email protected] SPONSORS BTC Inc is excited to announce its upcoming conference, Distributed Health, November 5 & 6 in Nashville, TN. This is the first conference to bridge the gap between blockchain technology and the healthcare industry. Now in its third year, this two-day event is an opportunity for all members of the ecosystem, including payers, providers, law makers, retailers, investors and innovators, to reshape the future of healthcare. For more information, visit: health.distributed.com and use the promo code: BTCGAME20 to secure a 20% discount! While much of a Bitcoiner's time is spent in the world of digital assets, sometimes it's nice to own a physical representation of the virtual things you care about. For just the price of a cup of coffee or two (at Starbucks), you can own the world famous Bitcoin Keychain. As Seen On The Guardian • TechCrunch • Engadget • Ars Technica • Popular Mechanics Inforwars • Maxim • Inc. • Vice • RT • Bitcoin Magazine • VentureBeat PRI • CoinDesk • Washington Post • Forbes • Fast Company Bitcoin Keychains - BKeychain.com CREDITS All music in this episode of The Bitcoin Game was created by Rob Mitchell. The Bitcoin Game box art was created from an illustration by Rock Barcellos. Bitcoin (Segwit) tipping address: 3AYvXZseExRn3Dum8z9tFUk9jtQK6KMU4g Note: We've recently migrated our RSS feed (and primary content host) from Soundcloud to Libsyn. So if you notice the Soundcloud numbers have dropped off recently, that's the reason.