The advent of Bitcoin and the Blockchain has brought many changes to the world of finance. Previously, the traditional system of financial transactions involved the active participation of financial transactions of third parties, that is, banks.
However, the blockchain has now taken advantage of the transactions to be completed between individuals, companies across international borders without the participation of intermediaries. Previously, the world economy operated with fiat currencies / currencies supported by the state, that is, dollar, euro, pound, etc. With mass adoption on the rise, some cryptocurrencies are used to buy goods and complete transactions, with Bitcoin leading the pack.
In addition to performing peer-to-peer transactions, the blockchain has helped companies seal and execute contracts with the characteristics of intelligent contracts in public Blockchain such as Ethereum. Smart contracts have allowed a mechanism of fundraising, ICOs, known as the "massive application" for Ethereum, which has solved the problem faced by entrepreneurs who create traditional venture capital. This mechanism has resulted in more than $ 14 billion raised for companies enabled for blockchain in 2018.
The main drivers of cutting-edge technology adoption - increasing revenue, lowering costs and saving time - are not lost on large corporations such as JP Morgan, which announced the launch of its Quorum technology. However, for the average consumer, the savings in costs and time have not been orders of magnitude better than the original status quo and have not deserved the more or less cumbersome process of becoming a cryptocurrency user when obtaining a digital wallet.
With only nine years since the first Bitcoin white paper, blockchain technology is now studied by companies and governments to find possible use cases for efficiency and in the near future can usher in the third industrial revolution. However, the companies that will be able to reduce the complexity behind the creation of a cryptographic portfolio and the custody of digital assets will be the ones that help to introduce the general adoption that is needed for the blockchain technology to have a greater impact in the global economy.
It is possible that many people who spoke about blockchain and decentralization in 2017, as they advanced in 2018, fell silent one by one. Prices continued to fall and so did the voice of several defenders. And as the silence grew, scholars began to come out saying that the blockchain and Bitcoin were dead and that they were one of the greatest scams of all time. However, if there is one thing that is certain, this year, despite many negative comments from governments around the world, the regulations and the whole conflictive panorama around; The blockchain is changing the economy of many people and the way of thinking of large corporations, governments and institutions worldwide such as the International Monetary Fund, UN, WB, etc.
So we will see how little by little, in less than a decade, the technology of the block chain, that Bitcoin underlying; is changing the traditional business model.