Meet The Godfather Of Crypto, Who's Been Working On Digital Currency Since The Early 80s

Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal, Bloomberg News

LISBON, PORTUGAL - NOVEMBER 07: David Chaum, Elixxir on Moneyconf Stage during day two of Web Summit 2018 at the Altice Arena on November 7, 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2018, more than 70,000 attendees from over 170 countries will fly to Lisbon for Web Summit, including over 1,500 startups, 1,200 speakers and 2,600 international journalists. (Photo by Eoin Noonan /Web Summit via Getty Images) , Photographer: Handout/Getty Images Europe

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Bitcoin has been around for about ten years. But the dream of a decentralized, anonymous digital currency has been around for decades. On this week's podcast, we speak with one of the original godfathers of the space, David Chaum, an American cryptographer, who first wrote about digital cash in the early 80s. Chaum's original vision wasn't exactly the same as what we know as cryptocurrencies today, but many of the ideas were the same, and Chaum's work was cited by many of the early crypto believers. On this week's podcast, we talk to him about the history of his work, cryptocurrency, and where he sees it going now.

To contact the authors of this story: Tracy Alloway in Hong Kong at talloway@bloomberg.netJoe Weisenthal in New York at jweisenthal@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Laura Carlson at lcarlson21@bloomberg.net, Topher Forhecz