I just finished reading about Adam Back, and he’s truly one of those figures that most people in crypto don’t appreciate enough. We talk a lot about Satoshi, but without Adam Back, Bitcoin probably wouldn’t exist as we know it.

Think of it like this: while most of the world didn’t even know what cryptography was, Back was already fully immersed in all of this since the 90s. He was a true cypherpunk—not just in name. In 1997, he created Hashcash, which was basically a Proof of Work system (Prueba de Trabajo) designed to stop spam. It sounds simple, but that was literally the cornerstone of how Bitcoin works today.

What’s interesting is that when Satoshi published the whitepaper in 2008, he directly cited Hashcash. It wasn’t a coincidence. Satoshi even communicated with Back before launching Bitcoin. So Adam Back wasn’t just a witness to Bitcoin’s birth—he helped make it possible from the very beginning.

After 2009, when Bitcoin was activated, Back continued to be essential in keeping the original philosophy alive. Then, in 2014, he co-founded Blockstream to build serious infrastructure around Bitcoin—sidechains, the Liquid Network (Red Liquid). There have been controversies with Blockstream, that’s true, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Adam Back was crucial to technical development.

Right now, between 2025 and 2026, what’s interesting is that he’s still researching post-quantum security. In other words, he’s thinking about how to keep Bitcoin secure against future technological threats. That’s long-term vision.

In summary, Adam Back is the kind of person who connects the original ideals of the cypherpunks with what Bitcoin is today. He’s not a name that shows up everywhere, but his influence is everywhere. He’s one of Bitcoin’s living pillars, no exaggeration.