The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

Public key cryptography, or the use of encryption to secure information against unwanted access by third parties, was discovered in 1973. Research on and access to encryption technologies were highly embargoed.

In 1975, the government introduced the Data Encryption Standard, a national encryption standard for public and commercial use. Thus limiting citizens’ access to cryptography knowledge and tools. This is part of a decades-long battle over data privacy known as the “Crypto Wars.”

Without cryptography, there could be no distributed consensus in a network of actors who do not know or trust each other. As computers get more powerful and can guess numbers faster, the algorithms used will need to withstand time and rapidly evolving technological standards to maintain the current level of security. Many researchers and developers... See more