Bitcoin and its underlying technology blockchain are game-changing technologies that are reshaping and revolutionizing the world economy. Often hidden behind the headlines of Bitcoin’s meteoric rise in market value and blockchain’s technological promise is a basic understanding of what these two technologies are and where they come from. Let's explore the fundamentals of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and their underlying technology, blockchain.
(ANTIMEDIA) – After its meteoric rise in value, Bitcoin has many financial analysts wondering aloud how high the cryptocurrency’s ceiling may go. Several have concluded that Bitcoin could soon outpace expectations in a grandiose way. Goldman Sachs’ head of technical strategy, Sheba Jafari, believes Bitcoin could soon reach a record-high of nearly $4,000 per coin.
I constantly get the question: why do we need this blockchain thing anyway? Here is why. Every society with a vibrant commercial life exalts private property as an institution. The entrenchment of this institution occurs in three stages. All three are essential.
The underbanked regions of the world aren't waiting for governments and centralized banking systems to break the cycle of poverty. Instead, they are utilizing the blockchain and cryptocurrencies to rise about their circumstances.
Now times are getting serious. The biggest banks and brokerage houses are on board. Tens of thousands of blockchain startups exist. There is a crowdfunding campaign for a new digital service and token nearly every day. There are so many white papers being issued that no one can keep up. For all the world, it looks like Tulipmania except that this is what many people have claimed for eight years, during which time a new world has been born.
Here come the machines, and they can read everything you have instantaneously, as well as every other law book every written. They have total recall of any precedent ever set and an insurmountable amount of information at the end of their electrodes, ready to be utilized in response to any query or requirement. But machine learning isn’t the thing that will exterminate the professions, specifically lawyers. The blockchain will be the grim reaper who comes for them first.
The pace of development is remarkable. And yet, we are faced with the threat of old-world bureaucracies managing old-world enterprises exercising heavy-handed control over new-world enterprises that are fundamentally rethinking the way business operates.
What’s the single greatest invention in human history? I would argue that the answer is private property. If you understand why, then you should also have a profound appreciation for another great invention in human history: the blockchain. They are mutually reinforcing. In fact, humanity has never had a better tool for keeping up with private property claims under complex, globalized, digital economic structures.
The system of transferring fine art suffers from great opacity that makes it difficult to track original works. Transaction records are usually paper-based, which exposes them to a plethora of risks – they can be easily lost, destroyed, altered, or stolen. Luckily, Blockchain is particularly fit to solve these issues.
At some point, and probably sooner than we think, the current left and right offerings of the major parties, including (perhaps especially) the populist, will start to appear ludicrous and unworkable. New political movements and ideas will arrive before long for this industrial revolution, especially once the majority of the population will soon have grown up online.
