How Neal Stephenson ‘invented’ Bitcoin in the ‘90s: Author interview

Author Neal Stephenson mapped out how uncensorable, cryptographic digital currency could work more than a decade before Bitcoin was invented.

Author Neal Stephenson famously invented the term “Metaverse” with the publication of Snow Crash in 1992 a year before the World Wide Web or Doom even launched. But for crypto fans, his fictional depictions of early versions of Bitcoin more than a decade before it was invented are even better reasons to celebrate his work.

In his 1995 novel The Diamond Age he described an anonymous peer-to-peer communication system that could transfer money. A short story he published in TIME that same year called The Great Simoleon Caper explored a private, cryptographic digital currency using private keys called CryptoCredits.

His most in-depth work detailing a plan to set up money outside of the control of the state was the 1999 doorstopper opus Cryptonomicon, whose title was partly inspired by the Cyphernomicon FAQ.

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