Ever since his childhood years, Adam Back, now CEO of Blockstream, would spend his time fidgeting with programming code to look for encryption keys embedded in the software. Born in 1970, the London native completed his A-levels in mathematics, physics and economics before focusing on computing science and earning a Ph.D. from the University of Exeter. Having devoted his career to applied cryptography, Back invented HashCash in 1997, a proof-of-work system used to limit email spam and denial-of-service attacks that later became more renowned for its use in Bitcoin (BTC). In fact, Back was one of the few people to be cited in the original Bitcoin white paper.
Nowadays, Back manages his digital asset custody firm, Blockstream, which is based in Victoria, Canada and raised $210 million in a Series B round last August. During an interview with Cointelegraph reporter Joe Hall, Back explained that what fascinated him so much about Bitcoin at first was its fertile ground for a lot of applied research and development. “It covers lots of interlayer topics or people, like mathematics, computer science and programming,” he said.