Editing Digital currency (section)

==History==
Precursory ideas for digital currencies were presented in electronic payment methods such as the [[Sabre (travel reservation system)]].<ref name="Goedicke Neuhold Rannenberg 2021 p. 301">{{cite book | last1=Goedicke | first1=M. | last2=Neuhold | first2=E. | last3=Rannenberg | first3=K. | title=Advancing Research in Information and Communication Technology: IFIP's Exciting First 60+ Years, Views from the Technical Committees and Working Groups | publisher=Springer International Publishing | series=IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology | year=2021 | isbn=978-3-030-81701-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zok7EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA301 | access-date=2023-01-22 | page=301}}</ref> In 1983, a research paper titled "Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments" by [[David Chaum]] introduced the idea of digital cash.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blog.koehntopp.de/uploads/Chaum.BlindSigForPayment.1982.PDF|title=Blind signatures for untraceable payments|last=Chaum|first=David|date=1982|publisher=Department of Computer Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA|access-date=23 May 2017|archive-date=3 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903023239/http://blog.koehntopp.de/uploads/Chaum.BlindSigForPayment.1982.PDF|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=What Was the First Cryptocurrency? |url=https://www.investopedia.com/tech/were-there-cryptocurrencies-bitcoin/ |access-date=2022-11-18 |website=Investopedia |language=en}}</ref> In 1989, he founded [[DigiCash]], an electronic cash company, in Amsterdam to commercialize the ideas in his research.<ref name="requiem" /> It filed for bankruptcy in 1998.<ref name="requiem">{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/1101/6411390a.html|title=Requiem for a Bright Idea|website=[[Forbes]] |date=November 1, 1999 |first=Julie |last=Pitta}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-217527.html|title=Digicash files Chapter 11 |work=CNET |date=January 2, 2002}}</ref>

[[e-gold]] was the first widely used Internet money, introduced in 1996, and grew to several million users before the US Government shut it down in 2008. e-gold has been referenced to as "digital currency" by both US officials and academia.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Zetter |first=Kim |date=2009-06-09 |title=Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold |url=https://www.wired.com/2009/06/e-gold/ |access-date=2020-11-19 |magazine=Wired |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bender |first=Christian |title=A Gold Standard for the Internet? An Introductory Assessment |journal=Electronic Markets|volume=11|issue=1|citeseerx=10.1.1.543.5010 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=White |first=Lawrence H. |url=https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2014/5/cato-journal-v34n2-5.pdf|title=The Troubling Suppression of Competition from Alternative Monies: The Cases of the Liberty Dollar and E-gold|journal=Cato Journal|volume=34|issue=2|pages=281–301}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mullan |first=Carl P. |title=The Digital Currency Challenge: Shaping Online Payment Systems through US Financial Regulations |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2014 |isbn=978-1137382559 |location=New York |pages=20–29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2006-09-21 |title=Deleting Commercial Pornography Sites From The Internet: The U.S. Financial Industry's Efforts To Combat This Problem |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-109hhrg31467/html/CHRG-109hhrg31467.htm |access-date=2020-11-19 |website=www.govinfo.gov}}</ref> In 1997, Coca-Cola offered buying from vending machines using mobile payments.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nearfieldcommunication.org/payment-systems.html|title=History of Mobile & Contactless Payment Systems}}</ref> [[PayPal]] launched its USD-denominated service in 1998. In 2009, [[bitcoin]] was launched, which marked the start of decentralized [[blockchain]]-based digital currencies with no central server, and no tangible assets held in reserve.  Also known as cryptocurrencies, blockchain-based digital currencies proved resistant to attempt by government to regulate them, because there was no central organization or person with the power to turn them off.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Finley |first1=Klint |title=After 10 Years, Bitcoin Has Changed Everything—And Nothing |url=https://www.wired.com/story/after-10-years-bitcoin-changed-everything-nothing/ |access-date=9 November 2018 |magazine=Wired |date=31 October 2018}}</ref>

Origins of digital currencies date back to the 1990s [[Dot-com bubble]]. Another known digital currency service was [[Liberty Reserve]], founded in 2006; it lets users convert dollars or euros to Liberty Reserve Dollars or Euros, and exchange them freely with one another at a 1% fee. Several digital currency operations were reputed to be used for Ponzi schemes and money laundering, and were prosecuted by the U.S. government for operating without MSB licenses.<ref>{{cite news |title='Black Market Bank' Accused of Laundering $6B in Criminal Proceeds|author=Jack Cloherty |date=28 May 2013 |work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/black-market-bank-accused-laundering-6b-criminal-proceeds/story?id=19275887 |access-date=28 May 2013}}</ref> Q coins or QQ coins, were used as a type of commodity-based digital currency on [[Tencent QQ]]'s messaging platform and emerged in early 2005. Q coins were so effective in China that they were said to have had a destabilizing effect on the [[Chinese yuan]] currency due to speculation.<ref>{{cite news|title='China's virtual currency threatens the Yuan' |date=5 December 2006 |work=Asia Times Online |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HL05Cb01.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206060159/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HL05Cb01.html |url-status=unfit |archive-date=6 December 2006 |access-date=14 May 2016}}</ref> Recent interest in [[Cryptocurrency|cryptocurrencies]] has prompted renewed interest in digital currencies, with [[bitcoin]], introduced in 2008, becoming the most widely used and accepted digital currency.