On June 8, 2015, Adam Back and his cofounders at Blockstream released Sidechain Elements to the open-source community. Envisioned as a bridge between other blockchains, the project acknowledged Bitcoin’s conservative nature, and instead enabled experimentation to happen externally.

Back was a British cryptographer and cypherpunk credited with having invented Hashcash in 1997, an early example of cryptocurrency that used a similar system as Bitcoin. His foundational work in cryptography led to allegations that he was the person behind the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym, a fact that he has denied.

Over the years, Blockstream has made substantial contributions to the Bitcoin industry, from consumer wallet apps and layer-2 development, to mining facilities and even a Bitcoin satellite!

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About this Series

"Bitcoin: A Visual History" is a series of 21 illustrations and cinemagraphs commemorating remarkable people and landmark events throughout Bitcoin history. BVH is divided into 3 series of 7 illustrations each, with Series 1 dropping in late August 2020. Series 2 and Series 3 are scheduled to drop in the last quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, respectively.

Each illustration in BVH interlocks with the illustration immediately preceding it, and once completed, all three sets will form one massive unbroken chain of interconnecting illustrations.

Each segment is available as a 1-of-1 ultra-rare cinemagraph, or as a 10-of-10 limited edition illustration.

This series was created by CRYPTOPOP! with the support of WavesWorld.io.