The Pre-Cypherpunk Era(Pre-90’s) (1/3)

Had to open up the history books for this one.

The earliest attempt to create a digital currency was actually recorded in the Netherlands. Gas stations were frequently hit by a string of night-time thefts. Some clever developers devised the idea to put money onto a digital smart card so that truckers would use those cards instead of cash.

Following that, centralized payment protocols like Visa and Mastercard emerged with the introduction of POS(Point-of-sale) systems. These payment protocols are still in use today, proving just how archaic the old payment technology actually was.

Following that, Paypal aimed to create one of the first digital currencies by allowing users to exchange assets like gold for credits. This was termed ‘e-gold’ but eventually ran into various scams, hacks and fraudulent spends and was ultimately shut down.