• The first extensively used Internet money, e-gold, was created in 1996 and expanded to several million users before being shut down by the US government in 2008. Both US officials and academics have referred to e-gold as 'digital cash.' Coca-Cola began accepting mobile payments for vending machine purchases in 1997. In 1998, PayPal began its USD-based service.
• Bitcoin was the first decentralised blockchain-based digital currency, with no central server and no physical assets kept in reserve, when it was created in 2009. Because there was no central organisation or person with the capacity to switch them off, blockchain-based digital currencies, often known as cryptocurrencies, proved resistant to government attempts to control them.

Read More: Where is digital money stored?