99 in the name comes from the year it was discovered. However, it was only researched more thoroughly during the last few years. It was patented a few years ago.

But yes, there was a leak in the form of the first whitepaper published by Kwon who was a former member of the group—so perhaps had it not been for that release then they would still keep trying to enchance the process more before releasing.

Like for a decade ;).