Every century has seen at least one revolutionary invention which fulfilled the growing needs and wants of the people. For instance, the printing press was invented in the 1400s. Prior to it's invention, knowledge was only available to the wealthy, the nobles and the members of high society. The commoners were mostly unaware of the happenings in the country, I guess you could say that they were "deprived" of knowledge by not having access to some medium that would not only relay news to them but also knowledge, educating them in the process. Printing press bridged this so-called "knowledge gap". Similarly, the Industrial Revolution provided new means of manufacturing, instead of human labour, or slavery if you will.
The past century saw a staggering number of inventions that have come to stay, in fact now they are an essential part of an average person's life. The historic first flight in mankind's history which was undertaken in 1907 by the Wright Brothers. The television, radio, hell even air conditioning. And who could forget the Internet itself. All of these have enabled mankind to go further than ever before in their own ways. They have made lives easier, and some might even say that they have made lives secure.
So what's the big invention of this century?
The first "smartphone" came out back in the 1990s, although you could argue the "smartness" of it, so smartphones are out of the picture. Can you name one single revolutionary technological invention of this century? Sure you can!
Blockchain of course!
A decentralized and distributed database, a database that cannot be hacked, a ledger from which transactions cannot be erased. Transactions are quick, and most importantly no one other than the users themselves control their information. In commerce, it is important to have trust if you want to transact with another person. If you don't have trust, you wouldn't transact. If everybody stopped "trusting", commerce would come to a bit of a halt, wouldn't it? If trust is so important, than how does blockchain build trust? Blockchain keeps an up-to-date, public ledger that's decentralized and distributed across computers. Any computer can check the integrity of a transaction online thus eliminating fraud. Transparency is one of the major and one of the best features of the Blockchain technology. It prevents information from being appended.
In 2008, Blockchain was implemented as a core component for Bitcoin, solving what the cryptographers had been calling for years the "double spend" problem which is essentially spending the same amount of money more than once. Bitcoin solves this by checking each transaction added to the blockchain to confirm that the same inputs had not been previously spent.
Crypto-currencies are unregulated unlike conventional currency. A single authority or institution regulates or controls the centralized"conventional currency" like US Dollar, whereas crypto-currencies are distributed and decentralized. No doubt crypto has a vast number of advantages like anonymity, the list goes on.
So what does the future hold for crypto and blockchain?
The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance estimates that a total number of three million people use crypto-currencies. This number is still relatively small and it's bound to grow in future. As more and more people realize the potential of crypto and more specifically the blockchain itself, we will see increasing adoption. But a lot of hurdles still remain in the path as the governments around the globe see crypto as dangerously unregulated and "fronts for criminal activity". A new proposed bill in the US Congress will require travelers to declare their digital currencies at the US border. It is entirely possible that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is expanded to also cover crypto in the future.
The price of crypto, or more specifically Bitcoin, is bound to go up. The analyst who predicted Bitcoins $2000 price also predicts a price of $100,000 in the upcoming ten years, as strange as that may sound. But if USD gets inflated enough, that price might be possible. But it is difficult to predict anything when talking about cryptocurrencies. For all we know, Bitcoin might be below $100 in ten years time.
I am very excited for Blockchain's future! The possibilities are basically endless, in fact a decentralized, and blockchain-powered internet is not far off! Steemit is an incredible example of a social media site using blockchain technology. I imagine many sites and application will be adopting and implementing blockchain technology. Even banks might start to embrace it!
All in all, I can say that we are in for an exciting ride!
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