Smart Asset Catalog NA Archive: Blockchain and Crypto in February 1971

When you look up blockchain, a distributed digital ledger that records transactions across many computers. Also known as distributed ledger technology, it today, you see coins, DeFi apps, and smart contracts. But in February 1971? None of that existed. Bitcoin wasn’t even a thought. Ethereum? Not even a name on a whiteboard. The concept of decentralized digital money hadn’t been invented yet. The first blockchain wouldn’t be built for another 38 years. This archive page is empty because the technology it covers hadn’t been born.

That doesn’t mean this month is meaningless. It’s a reminder of how fast things change. In 1971, the U.S. ended the gold standard. Cash became pure government promise. No backing. No physical tie. Just trust in a system. That shift—removing gold from money—was the real foundation for what came later. Digital money needed that precedent. You can’t have crypto without first accepting that money can be invisible, intangible, and controlled by code instead of gold reserves. cryptocurrency, a digital asset secured by cryptography and operating independently of a central bank. Also known as digital currency, it relies on that same idea: trust in math, not banks. The tools we use now—exchanges, wallets, airdrops—were science fiction back then. No one had a wallet app. No one traded Bitcoin on an exchange because Bitcoin didn’t exist. Airdrops? That term didn’t even have meaning. It was just paper checks and bank wires.

So why does this archive matter? Because it shows you where the journey started—not with code, but with a decision to let money evolve. The blockchain you use today is built on decades of financial experimentation. Every exchange you compare, every airdrop you claim, every DeFi protocol you try—it all traces back to moments like this one. February 1971 wasn’t about crypto. It was about the end of an old system. And that’s what made the new one possible. You won’t find articles here because there was nothing to write about yet. But you’ll find clarity. This empty page is a signal: the future of money wasn’t written in code. It was written in policy, in doubt, in change. Below you’ll see what the site has covered since then. And if you’re wondering how we got here? This is where the story began.