Although blockchain is the technology that was originally created to support the well-known Bitcoin, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary; and although blockchain is considered in general to be the technology of the cryptocurrency world, we see nowadays this same technology to advance exponentially and to have uses that are implemented in many different pillars of our digital ecosystem as we know it today.
Because of an aspect called decentralization, blockchain technology promises a future where we can collect data along with personal information and store them in a secure way, offering transparency, atomization, and traceability. A great example of this use in everyday life can be a small business, which using this technology is actually able to minimize technology and security costs of their online assets while at the same time provides higher quality services faster, in a more transparent way and a safer way coming to their customers’ data.
What is magical about blockchain is that we can use it to transfer or receive payments. You can tell me, sure but we can still do this with banks. We already know how to do this, it feels safe, thus why fix something that ain’t broken?
Well, I will reply with yet another example: Let’s hypothesize that we want to send money from Greece to Zambia. Or from Australia to Montenegro.
Now let’s investigate:
Is such a transfer safe? Well in terms of percentages, the majority of the times your money will arrive. And this is ok.
Is such a transfer fast? Well, NO! Of course not. Such transfers can take up to 10 days to be completed.
Is such a transfer economically viable? Well, for small amounts of money NO. Why? Because all these middlemen, the banks involved in the transaction keep a percentage of your money as payment for the services they provide to you.
Now with blockchain, the idea is there should be no middlemen. And thus, the transactions can be way faster and the fees so much lower.
Is this happening? Well yes and no. There are many promising companies like for example Volentix.io that they aspire to create a peer-to-peer network where the fees are close to zero and the transactions happen really fast.
There are also some more exchanges that strive to become decentralized. We are going in the direction where your money is actually yours. You have them and you owe them.
Today you say you have ownership of your money, but basically, your money is simply a bank statement. And the banks are controlled by the governments. Once a government, for example, imposes capital controls {the case of Greece 3 summers ago. and many other countries worldwide} then all of a sudden you do not have access to your own money anymore!
Last but not least, let’s talk GDPR. Blockchain is reinventing the way we share & store our data. It reduces the fear of cyber-attacks, therefore creating a safer environment for online transactions; with traceability being another big issue. But I have to talk about this to a next article.
All in all, the conclusion is simple: Blockchain technology is not just made for the crypto world. We should seriously consider the advantages and just accept it in the global market!