David Chaum, a renowned cryptographer and cypherpunk, is considered the inventor of electronic cash. In 1983, he published the paper "Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments", which would later be used to build the first-ever e-money system available for public use: Ecash. The company Digicash handled this type of anonymous electronic money until its bankruptcy in 1998 —but that would only be the beginning.
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Other exponents would join over the years. From 1996 to 2009, e-gold, a gold-based digital currency, amassed millions of users before being shut down by the U.S. government. By 1997, Coca-Cola introduced mobile payments for vending machines, and PayPal began offering its USD-based service in 1998. aLL of the above were fully dependent on banks and governments, though. money still came from the same ultimate source: a national central bank.
The landscape changed significantly with the advent of Bitcoin in 2009, which introduced decentralized digital currencies. These cryptocurrencies are distinct in their resistance to government regulation due to their lack of a central controlling entity.
In other words, there are no companies or closed groups behind their control, but only a global network of computers controlled by their owners. This setup ensures that no single entity has control over the currency, making it more resistant to censorship and manipulation.