Adam Back

British cryptographer and cypherpunk (born 1970)

Adam Back

Born| July 1970 (age 54)

London, England, UK

Education| University of Exeter
Scientific career
Fields|

* Cryptographic protocols
* Electronic cash
* Privacy-enhancing technologies
* Distributed systems

Institutions|

* Zero-Knowledge Systems
* Pi Corporation
* Blockstream

Thesis| Parallelization of general purpose programs using optimistic techniques from parallel discrete event simulation (1995)
Doctoral advisor| Stephen Turner
Website| cypherspace.org/adam

Adam Back (born July 1970) is a British cryptographer and cypherpunk. He is the CEO of Blockstream, which he co-founded in 2014. He invented Hashcash, which is used in the bitcoin mining process.

## Life

[edit]

Back was born in London, England, in July 1970.[1] His first computer was a Sinclair ZX81. He taught himself Basic, and spent his time reverse engineering video games, finding decryption keys in software packages. He completed his A levels in advanced mathematics, physics, and economics.[citation needed]

He has a computer science PhD in distributed systems from the University of Exeter.[2] During his PhD, Back worked with compilers to make use of parallel computers in a semi automated way. He became interested in PGP encryption, electronic cash and remailers. He spent two thirds of his time working with encryption. After graduation, Back spent his career as a consultant in start ups and larger companies in applied cryptography, writing cryptographic libraries, designing, reviewing and breaking other people's cryptographic protocols.[3]

## Cryptography software

[edit]

Back's "Munitions" T-shirt featured computer code that was considered to be a weapon in the United States.

Back is a pioneer of early digital asset research similar to Wei Dai, David Chaum, and Hal Finney.[4][5] In 1997, Back invented Hashcash.[6] A similar system is used in Bitcoin.[7][8][9]

He also implemented credlib,[10][better source needed][11][better source needed] a library that implements the credential systems of Stefan Brands and David Chaum.

He was the first to describe the "non-interactive forward secrecy"[12][13][14] security property for email and to observe that any identity-based encryption scheme can be used to provide non-interactive forward secrecy.

He is also known for promoting the use of ultra-compact code with his 2-line[15] and 3-line RSA in Perl[16][17][18] signature file and non-exportable T-shirts[19][20] to protest cryptography export regulations.[21]

Back was one of the first two people to receive an email from Satoshi Nakamoto.[22][2] In 2016, the Financial Times cited Back as a potential Nakamoto candidate, along with Nick Szabo and Hal Finney.[23] Craig Wright had sued Back for stating that Wright was not Nakamoto, with Wright subsequently dropping the suit.[2] In 2020, the YouTube channel Barely Sociable claimed that Back is Nakamoto. Back subsequently denied this.[24]

Back has promoted the use of satellites and mesh networks to broadcast and receive bitcoin transactions, as a backup for the traditional internet.[25]

## Business career

[edit]

On 3 October 2016, Back was appointed as CEO of Blockstream.[26]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Singh, Rachna (2019). The Bitcoin Saga: A Mixed Montage. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-9388271837.
2. ^ a b c Kharif, Olga (2 June 2020). "Latest Satoshi Nakamoto Candidate Buying Bitcoin No Matter What". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
3. ^ "Proof of Work - An interview with Adam Back (Blockstream)". YouTube. 7 August 2019. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021.
4. ^ Leising, Matthew (30 June 2018). "Is Bitcoin Creator Writing a Book? Cryptic Note Indicates Yes". Bloomberg. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
5. ^ Bustillos, Maria (25 August 2015). "Inside the Fight Over Bitcoin's Future". New Yorker. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
6. ^ Narayanan, Arvind; Bonneau, Joseph; Felten, Edward; Miller, Andrew; Goldfeder, Steven (2016). Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-17169-2.
7. ^ Shaw, Jessica Marmor (8 January 2018). "Bitcoin and cryptocurrency on Twitter: The most important people to follow". Marketwatch. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
8. ^ "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" (PDF).
9. ^ Casey, Michael J. (22 October 2020). "BitBeat: Bitcoin Coding Allstars Launch Sidechains Project to Boost Innovation". WSJBlogs. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
10. ^ Frisby, Dominic (2015). "Footnotes". Bitcoin: The future of money?. Unbound. ISBN 978-1783521029.
11. ^ "credlib - Credential Library". cypherspace.org.
12. ^ Boyd, Colin. "A Modern View on Forward Security" (PDF). IACR. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
13. ^ Anderson, Ross (2002). "Two remarks on public key cryptology" (PDF). Cambridge University. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
14. ^ "Non-Interactive Forward Secrecy". cypherspace.org.
15. ^ Salomon, David (2003). "Secure Programming with Perl". Data Privacy and Security. Springer. p. 200\. ISBN 9781441918161.
16. ^ Judmayer, Aljosha; Stifter, Nicholas (2017). "Before bitcoin". Blocks and Chains: Introduction to Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, and Their Consensus Mechanisms (Synthesis Lectures on Information Security, Privacy, and Tru). Morgan & Claypool Publishers. p. 17\. ISBN 9781627057165.
17. ^ "export-a-crypto-system sig". cypherspace.org.
18. ^ Sinn, Richard (2007). "Secure Programming with Perl". Software Security Technologies. Cengage Learning. p. 366\. ISBN 9781428319455.
19. ^ Blanchette, Jean-François (2012). "On the brink of revolution". Burdens of Proof: Cryptographic Culture and Evidence Law in the Age of Electronic Documents. MIT Press. p. 50\. ISBN 978-0262017510.
20. ^ "Munitions T-shirt". cypherspace.org.
21. ^ Brunton, Finn (2019). "On the brink of revolution". Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency. Princeton Press. p. 97\. ISBN 9780691179490.
22. ^ RATLIFF, EVAN (16 July 2019). "Was Bitcoin Created by This International Drug Dealer? Maybe!". Wired. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
23. ^ Kaminska, Izabella (7 May 2016). "Bitcoin: Identity crisis". Financial Times. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
24. ^ Kharif, Olga (2 June 2020). "Latest Satoshi Nakamoto Candidate Buying Bitcoin No Matter What". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
25. ^ del Castillo, Michael (17 December 2018). "Who Needs Verizon? Blockstream Broadcasts Entire Bitcoin Blockchain From Space". Forbes. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
26. ^ Blockstream (3 October 2016). "Blockstream Appoints Hashcash Inventor Dr. Adam Back as CEO". PR News Wire. Retrieved 2020-12-05.

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