Cryptography, the science of writing codes and ciphers for secure communication, is a key factor in the development and use of modern cryptocurrencies and blockchains. From ancient times to today, cryptography has been a constantly evolving tool used to protect valuable data. In this article, we’ll explore the long and fascinating history of cryptography that has allowed us to reach the advanced state of its modern digital encryption.
It’s believed that the earliest primitive forms of cryptography existed as far back as Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. One such example of symbol replacement was found in the tomb of an Egyptian noble named Khnumhotep II, who lived almost 4,000 years ago. At that time, it was not used for security, but rather as a means of enhancing language. The earliest known example of cryptography being used to protect sensitive information occurred in Mesopotamia some 3,500 years ago, when a scribe used it to conceal the formula for pottery glaze.
By later periods of antiquity, cryptography was being increasingly used for military purposes. This is evidenced by the Greek city-state of Sparta, where messages were encrypted by writing them on parchment laid over a cylinder of a particular size, so that the recipient would need to re-wrap the parchment around a similar cylinder in order to reveal the hidden message. Another example comes from India in the 2nd century BC, where spies used coded messages.
Improvements in cryptography took place throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, though for most of this period, substitution ciphers such as the Caesar cipher remained the most common form of cryptography. This changed with the introduction of cryptanalysis by Al-Kindi, an Arab mathematician. With his frequency analysis technique, codes and ciphers could be broken down and their contents revealed. In response, Leone Alberti innovated the polyalphabetic cipher in 1465, which made it possible to use two different alphabets to encode the first, proving to be a great success.
In the 19th century, Thomas Jefferson developed the cipher wheel, a machine consisting of 36 rings of letters on moving wheels. This was the basis for American military cryptography until World War II, when the Enigma machine, a complex analog cryptography machine, was employed by the Axis powers. Despite its complexity, this machine was eventually broken by early computer technology.
Today, 128-bit mathematical encryption is the standard for securing sensitive data. Quantum cryptography, first proposed in 1990, is a newer form of cryptography which is still being developed. It’s now also the basis for cryptocurrency, which relies on cryptographic techniques such as hash functions, public-key cryptography, and digital signatures to ensure the security of data stored on blockchains.
The science of cryptography has come a long way from its earliest primitive beginnings, allowing us to secure and protect important data more effectively than ever before. Cryptography has been an integral part of human history for millennia, and its importance and applications continue to expand even today.
