# Background Stuart Haber and Scott Stonnetta, cryptographers from Bell Communications Research, Inc. Bellcore in the United States, wrote in September 1991 in the Journal of Cryptology, "How to Print a Digital Document." In their paper, they first described the concept of 'timestamp' that proves reliability by timestamping digital documents. They introduced a timestamp service called "Surety" that uses a cryptographic hashing algorithm to generate unique IDs for each document, which also changes the ID each time the document changes. In addition, the ‘Surety’ invented an "unforgery" seal for all customers by invoking a "universal registry database" consisting of pooled customer seal. They also completed the first case of blockchain technology by publishing weekly newly classified hash values in a small section of the New York Times. In 1998, Wei Dai the engineer invented the B-money first distributing electronic business solution based on the early version of the electronic distributing ledge- enciphering trading system. B-money provides the basic concept of all types of cryptocurrency. B-money provides an important concept which is to use the P2P method in direct trading between participants instead of using centralized organization and providing newly created blocks to the participant, actually used in cryptocurrency nowadays. But it is not realized. Because it is a cryptocurrency based on encoding technology like blind signatures not on blockchain technology. So it is meaningful to provide the basic important concept that referenced Satoshi Nakamotos’ paper. ![Distributing electronic business solution](/files/MNalKyMJ6LhShondxd0f) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://aok.gitbook.io/aok-en/background.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.