Is blockchain the new internet?
The blockchain is an undeniably ingenious invention – the brainchild of a person or group of people known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. But since its creation, it has evolved into something greater, and the main question every single person is asking is:
What is Blockchain?
Blockchain technology created the backbone of a new type of internet by allowing the distribution of digital information, but not its duplication. Originally devised for the digital currency Bitcoin, the tech community is now finding other potential uses for the technology.
People call bitcoin “digital gold,” and for a good reason. To date, the total value of the currency is close to $9 billion US. Also, blockchains can make other types of digital value. Like the internet (or your car), you don’t need to know how it works to be able to use it. However, having a basic knowledge of this new technology shows why they consider it revolutionary. So, we hope you enjoy this guide.
What is Blockchain Technology?
“The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”
Don & Alex Tapscott, authors Blockchain Revolution (2016)
A distributed database
Picture a spreadsheet that is duplicated thousands of times across a network of computers. Now imagine that this network is designed to regularly update this spreadsheet and you have a basic understanding of the technology.
Information held on a blockchain exists as a shared — and continuously refreshed — database. This is a way of using the network that has obvious benefits. Besides they don’t store the database in any single location, meaning the records it keeps are truly public and easily verifiable. No centralized version of this information exists for a hacker to corrupt. Hosted by millions of computers simultaneously, its data is accessible to anyone on the internet.
To go in deeper with the Google spreadsheet analogy, I would like you to read this piece from a blockchain specialist.
Blockchain as Google Docs
“The traditional way of sharing documents with collaboration is to send a Microsoft Word document to another recipient and ask them to make revisions to it. The problem with that scenario is that you need to wait until you receive a return copy before you can see or make other changes. This happens because you can’t do editing until the other person finishes it. That’s how databases work today. Two owners can’t be messing with the same record at once.That’s how banks maintain money balances and transfers; they briefly lock access (or decrease the balance) while they make a transfer, then update the other side, then re-open access (or update again).
With Google Docs (or Google Sheets), both parties have access to the same document at the same time, and the single version of that document is always visible to both of them. It is like a shared ledger, but it is a shared document. The distributed part comes into play when sharing involves a number of people.
Imagine the number of legal documents that we must use in that way. Instead of passing them to each other, losing track of versions, and not being in sync with the other version, why can’t *all* business documents become shared instead of transferred back and forth? So many types of legal contracts would be ideal for that kind of workflow.You don’t need a blockchain to share documents, but the shared documents analogy is a powerful one.”
William Mougayar, Venture advisor, 4x entrepreneur, marketer, strategist and blockchain specialist.
Durability and robustness
Blockchain technology is like the internet in that it has a built-in robustness. By storing blocks of information that are identical across its network, the blockchain:
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Can not be controlled by any single entity
Has no single point of failure.
Bitcoin came to be in 2008. Since that time, the Bitcoin blockchain has operated without significant disruption. (To date, any of problems associated with Bitcoin have been due to hacking or mismanagement. In other words, these problems come from bad intention and human error, not flaws in the underlying concepts.)
The internet itself has proven to be durable for almost 30 years. It’s a track record that bodes well for blockchain technology as its continues to be developed.
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Is transparent and incorruptible
The network lives in a state of consensus, one that automatically checks in with itself every ten minutes. A kind of self-auditing ecosystem of a digital value, where the network reconciles every transaction that happens in ten-minute intervals. They refer each of these group transactions as a “block”. Two important properties result from this:
Transparency data is embedded within the network as a whole, by definition it is public.
- It cannot be corrupted altering any unit of information on the blockchain because that would mean using a huge amount of computing power to override the entire network.
In theory, this could be possible. In practice, it’s unlikely to happen. Taking control of the system to capture Bitcoins, for instance, would also have the effect of decreasing their value.
A network of nodes
A network of so-called computing “nodes” make up the blockchain.
A node is a computer connected to the blockchain network using a client. This client performs the tasks of validating and relaying transactions. It gets a copy of the blockchain, which gets downloaded automatically upon joining the blockchain network.
Together they create a powerful second-level network, a wholly different vision for how the internet can function.
Every node is an “administrator” joining the network voluntarily (decentralizing, as they say, the network). However, each one has an incentive for participating in the network: the chance of winning Bitcoins.
Nodes say they are “mining” Bitcoin, but the term is something of a misnomer. In fact, each one is competing to win Bitcoins by solving computational puzzles. Bitcoin was the raison d’etre of the blockchain in its early concivement stages. We now recognize that it is only the first of many potential applications of the technology.
There are an estimated 700 Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies (exchangeable value tokens) already available. As well, a range of other potential adaptations of the original blockchain concept is currently active, or in development.
The idea of decentralization
By design, the blockchain is a decentralized technology
Anything that happens on it is a function of the network as a whole. Some important implications stem from this. By creating a new way to verify transactions aspects of traditional commerce could become unnecessary. Stock market trades become almost simultaneous for instance — or it could make types of record keeping, like a land registry, fully public. And decentralization is already a reality.
A global network of computers uses blockchain technology to jointly manage the database that records Bitcoin transactions. That is, the whole network manages the Bitcoin and not any one central authority. Decentralization means the network operates on a user-to-user (or peer-to-peer) basis. We are just beginning to investigate the forms of mass collaboration this makes possible.
Who will use the blockchain?
As web infrastructure, you don’t need to know about the blockchain for it to be useful in your life. Currently, finance offers the strongest use cases for the technology. International remittances, for instance. The World Bank estimates that money transfers in 2015 exceeded $430 billion US. And at the moment there is a high demand for blockchain developers.
The blockchain potentially cuts out the middleman for these types of transactions. Personal computing became accessible to the general public with the invention of the Graphical User Interface (GUI), which took the form of a “desktop”. Similarly, the most common GUI devised for the blockchain is the so-called “wallet” applications. People use them to buy things with Bitcoin, and store it along with other cryptocurrencies.
The processes of identity verification closely connect transactions online. It is easy to imagine that wallet apps will transform in the coming years to include other types of identity management.
The Blockchain & Enhanced security
By storing data across its network, the blockchain eliminates the risks that come with holding data centralized.
Its network lacks centralized points of vulnerability that computer hackers can exploit. Today’s internet has security problems that are familiar to everyone. We all rely on the “username/password” system to protect our identity and assets online. On the other hand blockchain, security methods use encryption technology.
The basis for this is the so-called public and private “keys”. A “public key” (a long, randomly-generated string of numbers) is a users’ address on the blockchain. Bitcoins sent across the network get recorded as belonging to that address. The “private key” is like a password that gives its owner access to their Bitcoin or other digital assets. Store your data on the blockchain and it is incorruptible. This is true, although protecting your digital assets will also require the safeguarding of your private key by printing it out, creating a paper wallet.
A second-level network
With blockchain technology, the web gains a new layer of functionality.
Users can already transact directly with one another — Bitcoin transactions in 2016 averaged over $200,000 US per day. Due to the added security brought by the blockchain, new internet business is on track to unbundle the traditional institutions of finance.
Is the Blockchain a New Web 3.0?
The blockchain gives internet users the ability to create value and authenticates digital information. What will new business applications result?
- Smart contracts
- The sharing economy
- Crowdfunding Governance
- Supply chain auditing
- File storage
- Prediction markets
- Protection of intellectual property
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Neighbourhood Microgrids
- Identity management
- AML and KYC
- Data management
- Land title registration
- Stock trading