In a few words, a blockchain is a digital ever-growing list of data records. Such a list is comprised of many blocks of data, which are organized in chronological order and are linked and secured by cryptographic proofs.

The first prototype of a blockchain is dated back to the early 1990s when computer scientist Stuart Haber and physicist W. Scott Stornetta applied cryptographic techniques in a chain of blocks as a way to secure digital documents from data tampering. The work of Haber and Stornetta certainly inspired the work of Dave Bayer, Hal Finney, and many other computer scientists and cryptography enthusiasts – which eventually lead to the creation of Bitcoin, as the first decentralized electronic cash system (or simply the first cryptocurrency). The Bitcoin whitepaper was published in 2008 under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.