Among the biggest inventions of the 20th century was the computer. Apple and IBM brought a new turn with the PCs during the 70s which gave anyone ability to use one. Then the internet emerged in the 1990s. At the beginning no one knew what to do about it and only a few enthusiasts and geeks could make sense of TCP/IP url’s etc
Nobody had a clue of the groundbreaking potential it had. And its influence in our lives became obvious during the late 90s to early 2000s when sites like Google and facebook emerged giving rise to a worldwide community which was unheard of before. This lead to a world connected.
In 2008 certain events happened that shock the world. Some of them included America electing their first black president, biggest financial crisis of the century and the emergence of a new technology known as the block chain. The latter took time before the impact could be felt unlike the other two. No one really knew about it at the time. Heck I was still in middle school.
Before I get to the blockchain technology let me first mention the reason it was created. During the financial crisis of 08 the Lehman brothers experienced the biggest bankruptcy case of modern history. The shattering meltdown of the financial system caused many people to lose trust in to the then established centralized world order. They also started to question governments since they didn’t understand why banks had to be bailed out by the tax payers’ money in the first place. And no one got convicted as all the blame went to the middle and lower class population.
So how does the blockchain fit into all of this?
This technology came two months after the collapse of the Lehman brothers. That fall a group(person) under the sudo name Satoshi Nakamoto released a white paper under the title “Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer Electronic Cash System” And the first sentence stated, “ A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow our online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution. “
This was just no coincidence, as this came just as the trust of the centralized system was lost
How does the blockchain work?
I’m assuming if you’re already using steemit you are an expert at it and if not then you must have an idea about it.
Well some people describe it as follows; “…blockchain technology facilitates peer-to-peer transactions without any intermediary such as a bank or governing body…” – Don Tapscott who is one of the leading innovators of the blockchain tech.
At its core the blockchain makes it possible to remove all middlemen transaction with digital assets as they will simply not be needed anymore. I will dive deeper into what it means to financial businesses and the industries it will disrupt is in my next post
Then why is Bitcoin given so much attention?
Imagine the Bitcoin as an app that leverages the blockchain technology to send money around the same way that the email app leverages the internet to send email around.
At its core the blockchain is nothing else but a database. A database that is:
Public - therefore not owned by anybody.
Distributed – therefore not stored centrally on a computer but many computers across the world
Constantly Synchronized – to keep the transactions up to date.
Secured – Asymmetric cryptography. These are cryptography systems that use pairs of keys: public keys which may be disseminated widely, and private keys which are known only to the owner.
It must be a little overwhelming to newbies but trust me you’ll get there and realize that the window to get on board is now.
I first came across the term blockchain last year fall when I attended my sisters presentation on this crazy app she had built with her friends to help in detecting unmonitored garbage across city streets. Among the key speakers who I don’t remember the name mentioned it and wanted to know who else had ever heard about it. In a room full of nerds, techies and first adopters no one raised their hand. I swear I was probably the only person who wrote it down… I looked around. Maybe I was in a room full of geniuses who remember everything or they just didn’t care.
I did know about Bitcoin but not the technology that made it happen as do most people around the world which I think is not right. It is necessary for everyone to understand how blockchain works if they are to use it with their valuable information. Just as everybody needs to understand how banks and financial services work in order to avoid the 2008 meltdown.
Finally you can store anything securely using the blockchain. But in order for this to work governments would need to start formally accepting such blockchain IPs and start issuing their official documents statistically to you rather than physically like passports, licenses etc.
We are not there yet as these services take time. Regulatory questions need to be addressed. As Bitcoin and other crypto currencies grow banks and governments role reduces which makes them nervous. But they should be smart about it. They should not fight it because there is no sign of it stopping.
There is so much the blockchain will bring. New technologies inspired by the blockchain will rise. This is only the beginning.
Thank you for your time. Leave an upvote, resteem and continue with the conversation of the blockchain.
sources:
The Big Short inside the doomsday machine by Michael Lewis
Blockchain demystified by Daniel Gasteiger