Hello Stemians,
This is my first post on Steemit, I am going to start with introducing myself, why I am here, share a story of my (late) journey in the world of cryptocurrency, what I have learned so far, and a little prediction on the future of this technology also a different perspective from this technology that I learned so far.
Note: I will focus on bitcoin (the first and the most popular one) as a representative of the term cryptocurrency in general.
Please fasten your seatbelt, grab your cup of coffee first before we start our journey lol.
1. Who I am
I am Fardian, a father of two daughters, a coffee addict, a lecturer in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh, Indonesia. I have been teaching for 14 years. I am interested in several topics such as Embedded Systems, IoT, Mobile Technology, Image Processing, Computer Networks and Distributed Systems. I am not a too active 'status writer' on mainstream social media platforms such as facebook, twitter, etc. Maybe I can be more active here, hopefully.
2. When I am here
I am relatively new here on Steemit (joined on December 2017). 
A few days later, I met another good old friend of mine 
The terms such as bitcoin, cryptocurrency, distributed ledger, etc actually are not something new to me, at least I have seen it since several years ago, popped up from newsfeed, appeared several times on my facebook's wall, and from other sources but that does not successfully make me pay attention more about all of it. At that time for me, those terms are like any other not so important information or temporarily trending terms that will eventually vanish or another new form of digital scam. I avoided myself to suffer from infobesity ( you know, too many information flows on internet, a perfect blending of fact + hoax can drive you to mental hospital in no time lol)
The meeting with these 2 good friends later made me think, what is this all about? why my friends seemed so attached to the terms that I am not used to pay attention to. And this makes me more curious and drags me to lock myself in my room and do some research.
3. What I learned
My journey in exploring the world of bitcoin is then started. Then, I was like punched in the head by Mike Tyson, kicked in the balls by Bruce Lee, slammed by The Rock (yeah, I am exaggerating lol).
Omg!!!, this is a fascinating technology, a quantum leap in computer technology since email was invented. It is guaranteed secure, decentralized, zero cost transaction, private, fast, and profitable; these ideal properties that grouped in one package are something nearly impossible in practice of computer security as far as I know. There are so many sources mentioned about the 'beauty' of this technology, its impact on the future of our life, and so on.
In my opinion, it is too good to be true. It motivates me to explore more and see whether is it just an iceberg phenomenon like many other technologies or it is a beginning of new era?.
Not only that, Steemit in particular, its 'fever' has penetrated into people from different backgrounds. Especially in Banda Aceh my city, they even have established a community, Indonesian Steemit Community Chapter Banda Aceh. In [youtube]
In this video, 
There also another seemed a growing community which has their own way on how to manage their community, as can be seen from the article written by 
It may be some more kind of communities exist other than those two ones, but the interesting part is its concept. Anyone is forced to be a part of communities. Like in the ocean, it is very difficult to survive individually if you are just a small fish unless you are already a shark or whales.
This finding made me feels like an isolated ancient man who lives in a cave.
image source : kappercreations
This cave man has to go outside and starting to adapt to the modern world lol.
Below is what I have learned so far about the 'modern world'. I hope it will also help other readers to understand about this phenomenon in a chronologically way in order to get prepared for another 'atomic bomb' phenomenon that maybe 'blast' again in the future.
4. Some Interesting Findings:
Satoshi Nakamoto (pseudonym) (remain unknown until today), the creator, in 2008 published a white paper of the bitcoin concept. He implemented the concept in 2009 and created genesis block (the first block ever made). Claimed to earn 1 million of bitcoin (from mining). He handed the system to Gavin Andresen in 2010 and then disappeared until now. Gavin decentralized bitcoin control and it becomes a fully decentralized system. And then the snowball effect begins up to now.
The core of this technology is called blockchain, a distributed ledger that accessible by anyone, once entered it cannot be manipulated, a solution to a double spending digital problem (no one can duplicate the entry), trusted transaction between people who do not know each other, and it is completely free.
People who make sure the double spending does not happen is called bitcoin miners, they got incentive by the system in a form of bitcoin. They 'donate' their computer resources to solve mathematical puzzle given by system to do the work. It is ruled by an algorithm known as Pow (Proof of Work). There are also several algorithms implemented by other cryptocurrencies such as PoS (Proof of Stake), PoI (Proof of Importance), etc while Steemit is using none of the bitcoin algorithm mentioned before (I am going to do a little research about this later).
New bitcoin will be produced everytime bitcoin miners do the work of validating transactions.
The total amount of bitcoin supply that can be mined is limited to 21 million by design and it will be no more new bitcoin in the year 2040. This condition is clearly explained in the following clip
courtesy of : sq1.tv (https://www.youtube.com/user/SQ1television)Up to January 28th, 2018 (while this article is being written) the total number of bitcoins that have already been mined is 16,832,288. Source: [blockchain.info] (https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins?timespan=all)
which means the remaining amount of bitcoin not yet mined is 4,167,712.The mathematical puzzle is getting more complex which requires more powerful computers and it also affects to the use of electricity. In some countries, the mining process is no longer a profitable activity because of the electricity cost.
In general, there are 3 types of people who use bitcoin:
The early of bitcoin adopters mostly come from people with ideological reason and political motivation. They used it as a symbol to fight against the 'unfairness' of traditional banking systems. Vlog by
at () summarized it perfectly. It also becomes an alternative hope used as an instrument to attack global poverty. Article from
at (https://steemit.com/bisteemit/@paulag/steemit-good-news-story-1-attacking-global-poverty-with-steem-and-steemit) is a good example that represents this kind of ideological movement (Thanks
Since bitcoin getting more popular, it attracts more people who like anonymity, people who do not want their activity to be known by others. And some of 'bad guys' using it to do illegal transactions. Silk Road is an example of the famous marketplace that sold illegal drugs that allowing people to transact using bitcoin.
The third type of people that interested in bitcoin is the biggest part of its user. Nearly all of us (including me lol) find it a new way to do transaction fairly, easily, free, done from anywhere by anyone, no minimum limit, taxless, and can be earned in more creative ways.
5. Blockchain, in-depth investigation
The most 'beautiful' part of blockchain technology is in its ability to solve double spending problem while cryptography and distributed network are not something new as a technology. Bitcoin uses PoW (Proof of Work) algorithm to do the work. Basically, PoW does the job by letting the 'winning' miners decide which transaction is valid or no. The valid transaction is not always chosen in an orderly fashion. This is the reason why blockchain considered not yet the ultimate solution to digital transactions because it lacks of fairness.
6. HashGraph as the new revolutionary transaction technology?
Hashgraph gains a lot of attention recently. It proposes a whole new approach that claimed (by its creator of course lol) better than any existing blockchain technology in ways of: faster, fairer, and more secure. For further detail, please visit their official site at [hashgraph] (http://hashgraph.com)
For a brief explanation, Ivan from (https://www.ivanontech.com/) described it beautifully in technical fashion below:
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7. What are we going to do now?
Are we (to be precise, am I) going to wait until this technology booming and then start following trends or to follow the prospect of this technology since its early phase?
I do not know about you, but I no longer want to repeat the same mistake that I have made in bitcoin era, I woke up a bit late than others and missed its greatest opportunity that I should have taken.
I personally think that bitcoin era becomes near to its end, as can be seen from the graph which shows the trend from 2009 to 2018 in the following link 
8. Another perspective
Previously, I mostly talk about 'money', bitcoin relationship with finance, BUT I also learn that the blockchain technology is not limited only to financial transactions, it also applies to other non-financial transactions such as its implementation in medical records, electronic voting, and any other transactions which require properties of bitcoin (or hashgraph, or other related technologies) has. As an academician, it challenges me to explore this kind of technologies more and learn the possibilities of implementing it in order to improve our lives in a broader meaning.
The last, the growing number of people who join Steemit and write articles makes me very happy because especially in my country, the level of literacy awareness is still low. I hope Steemit can be a catalyst, a trigger to increase the level significantly. Thanks a ton to 
PS: 
