Widely credited as the inventor of digital cash, David Chaum is sometimes known as the father of online anonymity or the godfather of cryptocurrency, whose work inspired the near-mythical group called the Cypherpunks from which Bitcoin emerged.Beginning his studies in computer science in the late 1970s, when encryption was classified at the same level as nuclear technology, Chaum quickly realized that the technology would be crucial to ensure the continuation of privacy and democracy in the digital age.