The first idea of digital currency was conceived and described by Wei Dai in 1998, a computer engineer also known for b-money, Crypto++ and VMAC. Since then, together with Satoshi Nakamoto, Adam Back and other developers, they worked in developing the concept of Bitcoin – releasing the white paper on 31 October 2008.
Later on 09 January 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto writes on SourceForge:
>>> Announcing the first release of Bitcoin, a new electronic cash system that uses a peer-to-peer network to prevent double-spending. It’s completely decentralized with no server or central authority.
Thus, a new era of digital currencies and payments was introduced to the world-wide market.