The origin of the term ‘blockchain’ remains unclear since Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator(s) of Bitcoin, did not use the term explicitly in the whitepaper. However, phrases such as ‘blocks are chained’ and ‘chain of blocks’ in the paper suggest the concept. Nevertheless, the technology behind blockchain can be traced back to the work of W. Scott Stornetta and Stuart Haber, who developed a tamper-resistant system for document timestamps using cryptography, later enhanced by Merkle trees.

Who Invented Blockchain?

While the origin of the term itself is not clear that of the technology is. The origins of blockchain technology can be traced back to the cryptography work that was conducted by two scientists, W. Scott Stornetta and Stuart Haber. In their work, the goal of the two scientists was to develop a system where the timestamps of a document would be immune to tampering or changes. Merkle trees were later introduced by the two scientists to the design and this increased the efficiency since it allowed for the collection of several documents into one block.

But while Satoshi Nakamoto did not explicitly use the term blockchain he (or she or they) is credited with conceptualizing the first blockchain as it is the core component of bitcoin. In the flagship, digital currency blockchain serves the purpose of acting as a public ledger with regard to the transactions that take place on the network. By employing a blockchain bitcoin solved a problem that had been inherent in other digital currencies — double-spending. This was done without the need for a central trusted authority.