The Windows 95 Cryptocurrency that ALMOST Changed History

What if the first cryptocurrency had launched… in 1995? Before Bitcoin. Before Ethereum. Before any of it — there was a moment when digital money almost went mainstream. Not as some underground experiment… But built directly into one of the most iconic operating systems in history: Windows 95. Back then, Microsoft was working on a revolutionary new idea. A kind of internet cash. And at the center of that dream was a man named David Chaum — a cryptographer, a privacy advocate, and the creator of DigiCash — possibly the first real attempt at anonymous, digital currency. Bill Gates wanted to partner with him. He wanted DigiCash to power the future of finance… right from your PC. But something went wrong. The deal fell apart. And the future of money… took a very different path. Welcome to The Crypto Historian. This is the story of the crypto that almost launched in Windows 95 — and how that one decision may have delayed Bitcoin by more than a decade.