Where did cryptocurrencies come from?

At least several hundred years ago, islanders on Yap in western Micronesia used principles at the heart of cryptocurrencies to conduct business, says archaeologist Scott Fitzpatrick of the University of Oregon in Eugene. “Stone money transactions on Yap were the precursor to Bitcoin and blockchain technologies,” Fitzpatrick says.

When did cryptography start?

Although cryptography has a long and complex history, it wasn't until the 19th century that it developed anything more than ad hoc approaches to either encryption or cryptanalysis (the science of finding weaknesses in crypto systems).

What ciphers did ancient Greeks use?

The ancient Greeks are said to have known of ciphers. The scytale transposition cipher was used by the Spartan military, but it is not definitively known whether the scytale was for encryption, authentication, or avoiding bad omens in speech.