Nick Szabo is a computer scientist and cryptographer known for his research in digital contracts and digital currency. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1989 with a degree in computer science and received a law degree from George Washington University Law School.

The phrase and concept of smart contracts was developed by Szabo. He proposed Bit Gold in 1998 – one of the initial efforts aimed at creating decentralized virtual currencies. Bit Gold principles resemble Bitcoin closely in terms of time stamped Blocks that are stored in title registry and created using Proof of Work (PoW).