Part 2/12:
Tracing back over 27 years, the origin of proof of work (PoW) was introduced by Adam Back in 1997 as a solution to email spam. Though initially designed for email security, PoW became the core mechanism underpinning Bitcoin’s trustless consensus system. Adam Back’s innovation involves requiring computational work to validate transactions, effectively preventing malicious actors from taking over the network and ensuring robustness—a principle that remains central today.
This historical context underscores how Bitcoin's infrastructure is built on proven technological foundations, not arbitrary market hype. The host credits Adam Back’s genius for this innovation, which has become the "bedrock of Bitcoin."