Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin cover image

Bitcoin Explained - The Technical Side of Bitcoin

Episode 89: B-money and RPOW

Jan 22, 2024
The hosts discuss early electronic cash proposals, including B-Money and Arpow, and their influence on Bitcoin's design. They explore the challenges of preventing double spending, decentralized networks, and stable purchasing power. They also cover concepts like invalidation, issuance, remote attestation, and running the same software on multiple computers.
37:44

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • B-Money introduced the concept of consensus-based balance tracking and the idea of digital cash, foreshadowing aspects used in Bitcoin.
  • ARPow was a centralized cash system with transparent code, utilizing proof of work assignments and remote attestation, but its inflationary supply and centralized nature limited its adoption compared to Bitcoin.

Deep dives

Overview of the Podcast Episode

In this podcast episode, the hosts discuss two electronic cash proposals that predated Bitcoin: B-Money and ARPow. They explore the similarities and differences between these proposals and highlight the main ideas behind each. B-Money, proposed by Wei Dai, was a rough sketch of a digital cash system that aimed to prevent double spending by having participants keep track of the ledger. Although not implemented, B-Money introduced the concept of consensus-based balance tracking. ARPow, implemented by Hal Finney, was a centralized system with transparent code. Users could connect to the server, perform proof of work, and receive coins. Remote attestation was used to verify the code running on the server. The hosts also discuss how ARPow had an inflationary supply and why it did not gain much traction compared to Bitcoin.

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode