*WHY ADAM BACK IS A #BITCOIN LEGEND*
Trafficked illegal code that won the Crypto War
Cited in Satoshi's white paper
A thread ๐ฅ
1/ A PhD student in the U.K., Adam Back was 25 when he started experimenting with cryptography.
He wanted to shift the balance of power
He saw it as a way to undermine oppressive states โ
2/ Adam quickly joined the Cypherpunk Mailing List
The forum was a cultural force.
The cypherpunks were fighting for privacy and digital rights ๐
3/ Soon, Adam was no novice when it came to crypto.
In fact, his first act on the list was to claim a bounty issued by none other than Hal Finney.
The challenge? Hack SSL's weak state-approved crypto ๐
4/ But the 1990s was a dangerous time for cryptographers.
The US government wanted to ban it under weapons exporting laws.
Adam strategized with the cypherpunks on how to retaliate ๐
5/ Adam fought back with his code.
He distributed โillegalโ cryptography.
Here's his website where users could download PGP โ
6/ Adam did his best to disrupt internet surveillance.
Hereโs a tool he used that added flagged words like "terrorist" and "assassination" to his email signature.
The goal was to increase privacy and anonymity ๐
7/ Adamโs next contribution was the โMunitions T-Shirt.โ
A symbol of civil disobedience, it contained 3 lines of code โ the very cryptography the US was trying to ban
This SHIRT violated weapons exporting laws โ
8/ Announced in 1997, Hashcash was Adam's biggest invention yet
A digital cash could now be backed with computing resources...
It would revive the hope a digital cash could be created ๐
9/ Finally, in 2008, Adam received a mysterious email.
From the unknown Satoshi Nakamoto, it heralded a new approach to a decentralized money: #Bitcoin.
Adam read the email, but didn't think it would work...
๐ CUSTODY CHECK ๐
Do you have control of your private keys?
Do you have an inheritance plan?
Head on over to to upgrade Casa.io/history
10/ Then in 2012, Adam re-discovered #Bitcoin
He saw that it was becoming valuable โย and that the $BTC price had surged to over $100
He re-dedicated himself to the industry โ
11/ In 2014, Adam's vision finally became clear
He wanted to supercharge the #Bitcoin network for scaling
He raised $21 million for his own company ๐
12/ Blockstream attracted top #Bitcoin talent
Founders included some of the network's most prolific coders
This included Greg Maxwell, Matt Corallo, and Pieter Wuille โย core developers with thousands of commits ๐
13/ Adam put the brightest minds in #Bitcoin to work
Here they are in 2017, sending the first transaction relayed by satellite from outer space ๐คฏ
14/ Today, Adam sees #Bitcoin as one of the most important innovations in history
Here he is in 2020 when the price was $9,500
He called it a "new wonder of the world." ๐
15/ Adam believes Bitcoin will soon pass the market cap for gold
That means institutions and governments buying...
... and a price of $700,000 per $BTC โ
16/ Today, Adam is one of the few cypherpunks dedicating his life to #Bitcoin.
He believes $BTC will be worth over $1 million
โจ
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