Wei Dai


Wei Dai is a computer engineer known for contributions to cryptography and cryptocurrencies. He developed the Crypto++ cryptographic library, created the b-money cryptocurrency system, and co-proposed the VMAC message authentication algorithm. The smallest subunit of Ether, the wei, is named after him.

Education and career

Dai graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in computer science and is described as an "intensely private computer engineer". Wei Dai was member of the Cypherpunks, Extropians, and SL4 mailing lists in the 1990s. On SL4 he exchanged with people such as Eliezer Yudkowsky, Robin Hanson, Nick Bostrom, and others in the nascent "rationalist" community.

Cryptography

Dai has made numerous contributions to the field of cryptography and has identified critical Cipher Block Chaining vulnerabilities affecting SSH2 and the browser exploit against SSL/TLS known as BEAST.

Crypto++

is a free and open source C++ class library of cryptographic algorithms and schemes originally written by Wei Dai. Crypto++ has been widely used in academia, student projects, open source and non-commercial projects, as well as businesses.

VMAC

is a block cipher-based message authentication code algorithm using a universal hash proposed by Ted Krovetz and Wei Dai in April 2007. The algorithm was designed for high performance backed by a formal analysis.

b-money

In 1998, Dai helped to spark interest in cryptocurrencies with the publication of "b-money, an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system". In the paper, Dai outlines the basic properties of all modern day cryptocurrency systems: "...a scheme for a group of untraceable digital pseudonyms to pay each other with money and to enforce contracts amongst themselves without outside help".

Influence on the development of Bitcoin

Described as "money which is impossible to regulate", Dai's described the core concepts later implemented in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies:
Wei Dai and Adam Back were the first two people contacted by Satoshi Nakamoto as he was developing Bitcoin in 2008 and the b-money paper was referenced in the subsequent Bitcoin whitepaper.
In a May 2011 article, noted cryptographer Nick Szabo states:However, Dai questions b-money's influence on Bitcoin:There has been much speculation as to the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, with suspects including Wei Dai, Nick Szabo, Hal Finney and accompanying denials.