| Occupation: | Cryptographer, Computer scientist |
| Known For: | Co-inventing the blockchain |
| Notable Works: | "How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document” (1991) |
Stuart Haber is an American cryptographer and computer scientist, known for his contributions in cryptography and privacy-preserving technologies and widely recognized as the co-inventor of the blockchain. His 1991 paper "How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document”,[1] co-authored with W. Scott Stornetta, won the 1992 Discover Award for Computer Software and is considered to be one of the most important papers in the development of cryptocurrencies.[2] [3]
Haber studied at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude in 1978 with a B.A. in mathematics. Haber earned his PhD at Columbia University in 1987 under the advisement of Zvi Galil with a thesis titled Provably Secure Multi-party Cryptographic Computation: Techniques and Applications.[4] [5]
In 1987, Haber joined Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) as a research scientist. In 1989, Haber met W. Scott Stornetta, his future scientific partner and collaborator, when Stornetta joined Bellcore. In 1994, Haber and Stornetta co-founded Surety Technologies, a spinoff of Bellcore. In 1995, Surety’s offering constituted the first commercial deployment of a blockchain and is currently the oldest continuously running blockchain.[6]
In 2002, Haber joined HP Labs as a research scientist in the Princeton office, working there for 15 years on cryptography and security related problems.
Haber currently serves as a member of the advisory board for Kadena, a hybrid blockchain platform.[7]
Haber's research during his time at Bellcore, along with W. Scott Stornetta, is widely considered to be the foundation for Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Haber and Stornetta are the most cited authors in Satoshi Nakamoto’s original Bitcoin white paper, of the eight citations, three reference their work.[8]
Their 1991 paper "How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document” is where they first describe a system now known as a "blockchain".[9] In this study, Haber and Stornetta sought to create mechanisms to create digital time stamps, offering a solution for maintaining the integrity of digital records and ensuring that they could not be modified or manipulated.
In 1992, Haber, Stornetta, and Dave Bayer incorporated Merkle trees into their design, improving its efficiency by allowing many document certificates to be collected into one block.[10] [11] [12]
In 2018, Haber joined Kadena as an advisor.[13]