Abstract: The article is devoted to the research of prerequisites for the emergence of decentralized payment systems. Historical events and scientific developments have been divided into periods by technological encryption techniques used at different times. The first period (from about the 3rd millennium BC) is the period of mono-alphabetic ciphers, the basic principle of which is to replace the alphabet of the original text with another alphabet by replacing letters with other letters or symbols. The second period (approximately from the 9th century AD) is associated with the emergence of different variants of polyalphabetic ciphers. The third period (the first half of the XX century.) is characterized by the introduction of electromechanical devices. At the same time, the use of poly-alphabetic ciphers continued. The next is the period of transition to mathematical cryptography (from the mid-1970s to the end of the 1990s) due to the spread of open-key cryptography.

This article has analyzed the history of the Cypherpunk’s movement and ideology, which was proclaimed by Timothy May and Eric Hughes. In their manifestos acknowledge that privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world and the activities of the Cypherpunk’s movement are aimed at building anonymous privacy protection systems, anonymous mail forwarding systems, digital signatures and electronic money.

Also has been analyzed the modern decentralized payment systems and it is determined that the systems on the Proof-of-work algorithm are based on the computing power of the equipment. Most new blockchain projects go the cheaper way and use the Proof-of-stake algorithm. Functional crypto-assets are just an operating environment that allows the transfer of value between users without any intermediaries and without the need to trust one another or provide personal information. Hybrid (mixed) crypto-assets are mixed concepts and can either have a hybrid network consensus system or can combine two or even several functional crypto-assets. Currently the digital currency of the central banks has not been practically implemented, but its introduction is actively advancing.