Whitfield Diffie on the History of Cryptography

In this episode, I talk with legend of cryptography, Whitfield Diffie. Whit was working on cryptography long before Bitcoin existed, building the foundations for which Bitcoin relies upon. We discuss his history, Bitcoin and his views on privacy. LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE AND ACCESS LINKS TO THE SHOW NOTES https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/whitfield-diffie-on-the-history-of-cryptography WHERE TO FIND THE SHOW → My website: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/ → iTunes: https://apple.co/2OOlzVV → Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2ygc4W1 → Stitcher: https://bit.ly/2IQO8fX → SoundCloud: https://bit.ly/2CGSVQR → YouTube: https://bit.ly/2pR3s3g → TuneIn: https://bit.ly/2ywystr LISTEN TO OLD EPISODES → By guest: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/guests/ → By topic: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/topics/ → Transcriptions: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/transcriptions/ SUPPORT THE SHOW → https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/sponsorship/ → Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/whatbitcoindid/ → Subscribe on iTunes → Leave a review on iTunes → Share the show out with your friends and family on social media → Drop me a line on hello@whatbitcoindid.com WHERE TO FOLLOW ME: → Twitter: https://twitter.com/whatbitcoindid/ → Medium: https://medium.com/@whatbitcoindid/ → Instagram: http://instagram.com/whatbitcoindid/ → Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatbitcoindid/ → YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/whatbitcoindid/ → Website: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/ → Email list: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/subscripton/ LEARN ABOUT BITCOIN & CRYPTO: → Step by Step Guide: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/beginners-guide/ → Training: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/training/ → Resources: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/resources/ ***** “It is rare for first implementations of such broad concepts to do as well as that did, Bitcoin is still here 10 years after it started out.” — Whitfield Diffie Interview location: Palo Alto Interview date: Thursday 31st Jan, 2019 Company: Cryptomathic Role: Cryptographer and Security Expert A number of pioneers developed the cryptographic and technical foundations for which Bitcoin is built upon. Nick Szabo highlighted a number of these people in his Tweet: “Inventors of the most important technologies in Bitcoin: digital signatures and Merkle trees (Merkle), elliptic curve crypto (Koblitz), malicious-fault-tolerant consensus (Lamport), elliptic curve crypto (independent inventor: Miller).” Many others along the way have contributed to the success of Bitcoin, either through early work or attempts at created a digital currency, names such as Adam Back, David Chaum and Szabo himself. Whitfield Diffie sits alongside all of these people. His work on cryptography should not be forgotten in the history of Bitcoin and I had the pleasure of sitting down with him to discuss this, how he was introduced to Bitcoin and other such topics as privacy and security. ***** 00.03.09: Intro and welcome 00.03.48: The father of cryptography 00.04.46: Cryptography third wave with cryptocurrencies 00.05.44: Whit’s back story 00.07.44: The journey to become a cryptographer 00.18.14: Understanding cryptography 00.25.16: Early thoughts of money with cryptography 00.28.12: The centralisation problem with digital currencies 00.30.51: Whit’s exposure to Bitcoin 00.36.19: Where we use cryptography 00.39.55: Privacy 00.43.29: Thoughts on the evolution of technology 00.47.10: Cryptography and world security 00.56.27: Quantum computing 00.59.14: Significant unsolved problems in cryptography