Father of Crpytocurrency
Dr. David Chaum, who invented the world’s first electronic cash, visited South Korea to attend this year’s Distributed Economy Forum taking place on April 3 and 4 at Walker Hill Hotel Seoul.
In his keynote address on distributed computing, he stressed that cryptography, which is the foundation of the blockchain technology, can contribute to the realization of direct democracy.
He devoted himself to cryptography 35 years ago at the UC Berkeley Graduate School. Then, he founded the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) and invented eCash. One of his most well-known inventions is blind signature, which is the first attempt for combination between cryptology and financial transactions. With blind signature, only someone who receives money can find who sent it.
“I invented eCash to contribute to the protection of personal rights and freedom by means of cryptocurrency technology and I am convinced that cryptography will even change the governance of states without being limited to protecting the privacy of people,” he said, adding, “My dream is to contribute to the realization of direct democracy with cryptography.”