Information AgeTechnology Hashcash proof of work 1997Notable Adam Back proposes making senders prove they spent computing work before an email is accepted. Bitcoin mining later runs on the same idea. ▲ MattersSaveShareTrace roots Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → Habitual fire and cooking → Homo sapiens appears → Complex language → Natufian villages → Oldest known bread → Agriculture begins → Irrigation → Uruk and the first cities → Cylinder seals → Writing (cuneiform) → Babylonian mathematics → Babylonian astronomical diaries → Thales and natural philosophy → Trial and death of Socrates → Plato's Academy → Aristotle's Lyceum → Alexander's conquests → Alexandria founded → Library of Alexandria → House of Wisdom → Al-Khwarizmi and algebra → Descartes and analytic geometry → Calculus → Binary arithmetic → Boolean logic → Switching circuits compute logic → Information theory → Public-key cryptography → The cypherpunks → Hashcash proof of work Community notesLoading notes… Learn more ranked by votesBookNathaniel PopperDigital Gold ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubeAdam Back Hashcash proof of work ↗Editor's pick