# © Wei Dai

By [bobik](https://paragraph.com/@bobik-2) · 2023-10-26

---

Wei Dai is the creator of the decentralized payment system "B-money".

We don’t know much about Wei. He was born in 1976, graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics.

Wei Daya’s profile, once posted on the website of the now defunct VoteHere company, stated that he was part of a research group for Microsoft, where he was involved in cryptography. Before joining Microsoft, Wei Dai worked as a programmer at TerraSciences.

In addition, Wei Dai is the creator of Crypto++. It is a free and open C++ class resource, a library of cryptographic algorithms and schemes. Crypto++ has been widely used in academia, student projects, open access, and non-profit and business.

In 1998, Wei made a publication about his "anonymous, distribution system" - B-money.

B-money Wei Daya described a key concept later applied in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies:

*   Special amount of computing work required;
    
*   The work done is confirmed by the community;
    
*   Employee is awarded with funds for his attempt;
    
*   Exchange of funds is carried out by confirmation using cryptographic hashes;
    
*   Contracts are executed by signing them electronically.
    

However, the idea was never published - there were no enthusiasts who dared to take up the practical implementation of such a large-scale project at that time.

---

*Originally published on [bobik](https://paragraph.com/@bobik-2/wei-dai)*