Blockchain technology had its start in the whitepaper produced by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto which appeared soon after the 2008 economic crash. The revolutionary technology proposed in the whitepaper became the operating system for a cryptocurrency called Bitcoin thus the beginning of cryptocurrencies.
Many people see the blockchain and the associated cryptocurrencies as something for tech savvy crooks and anti-government activists. It moves well beyond those two niches.
Blockchain in its simplest form is a continuously updated record of who holds what. With a distribution system of record keeping that allows for immediate detection and rejection of tampering, trust is built in. The blockchain is the next phase of the internet, holding vast promise for everyone with built in real value.
The most common model of where to apply this emerging technology is FITS. It stands for:
— F - Fraud (environments where it can be rampant)
— I - Intermediaries (where middle men can be removed)
— T - Throughput (number of transactions/second can be handled)
— S - Stable Data (records need to be held and trusted)
Have a look at the video to learn more about the blockchain, DAOs (Smart Contracts) and their applications. The future is going to be exciting.
