Digital crypto-currencies like Bitcoin were predicted 18 years ago, an interview from 1999 has revealed.

Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman envisaged a future where electronic money would be used to make transactions between anonymous parties online.

The renowned economist made the claims during an interview filmed by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.

MILTON FRIEDMAN Milton Friedman was one of the most influential economists of the 20th century. Born on July 31, 1912, Friedman studied at Rutgers University, where he majored in mathematics and economics, graduating in 1932 He headed the Chicago School of Economics, a group of economic thinkers associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago. He was a strong advocate of economic liberty, free markets and free enterprise, and opposed the interventionist Keynesian economic policies of the US government in the 1960s. He received a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1976 for his work. He died on November 16, 2006, three years before Bitcoin's release in 2009. Advertisement

Footage of the conversation has re-emerged periodically on the internet ever since and has recently been shared widely again.

Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by a person or group of people operating under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and then adopted by a small clutch of enthusiasts.

As the market matured, the value of each Bitcoin grew.

At its height, it has reached in excess of £1,800 ($2,400).

Friedman, noted for his forward thinking on economic issues, made his prediction about the rise of crypto-currencies a full decade before this.

Speaking in the footage, he said: 'I think that the internet is going to be one of the major forces for reducing the role of government.

'The one thing that’s missing, but that will soon be developed, is a reliable e-cash, a method whereby on the internet you can transfer funds from A to B, without A knowing B or B knowing A.

'The way I can take a $20 bill, hand it over to you, and then there’s no record of where it came from.'

Friedman was one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, receiving a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1976.

Digital crypto-currencies like Bitcoin were predicted 18 years ago, an interview from 1999 has revealed. Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman envisaged a future where electronic money would be used to make transactions between anonymous parties online.

Bitcoin was launched in 2009 by a person or group of people operating under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and then adopted by a small clutch of enthusiasts. As the market matured, the value of each Bitcoin grew. At its height, it has reached in excess of £1,800 ($2,400)

He headed the Chicago School of Economics, a group of economic thinkers associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago.

Friedman studied at Rutgers University, where he majored in mathematics and economics, graduating in 1932.

He was a strong advocate of economic liberty, free markets and free enterprise, and opposed the interventionist Keynesian economic policies of the US government in the 1960s.

He died on November 16, 2006, three years before Bitcoin's release in 2009.