The technology behind bitcoin, the blockchain, is changing everything we touch.
It's becoming the foundation of trust online - transparent and incorruptible.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in finance, where projects are springing up to apply the blockchain to currency exchange, remittance payments, trade settlement and asset trading.
But outside of finance, other industries are also looking at the blockchain as a solution to problems.
In this instance, it's going to be a solution that offers security and privacy . This technology is going to make recording and verifying transactions easy and secure. It will also offer a central-database-less way of storing data across a distributed network.
And that's just scratching the surface.
For example, shipping industry stakeholders are exploring blockchain solutions to ease and secure global trade . The world of banking is looking at how the blockchain can speed up transactions, cut costs and make things more secure. Already people in Australia use bitcoin peer-to-peer payments to send money home to family in Philippines.
The blockchain is potentially bigger than the internet itself. It could make moving money as easy as sending an email. And you can see traces of its influence everywhere on the net.
Bitcoin has attracted people who like to take risks and some find it thrilling. Others like that they don't have to rely on a third party, like a bank or a government, to say they own something.
But bitcoin isn't the only place you'll find blockchain technology.
In all likelihood, it won't even be the main platform for blockchain development over the next few years.
This is because its design is geared towards a specific type of application - peer-to-peer money transfer without trusted intermediaries.
This is not the only way trust can be broken down in transactions. And it's not the best design for all applications of distributed data storage, either.
But while bitcoin may have fallen out of favour among people who would previously have been considered its early adopters - libertarians and anarchists - its underlying technology is just starting to come into its own.
In fact, it's evident that there are numerous other potential uses for the blockchain technology outside of bitcoin, as well as a growing number of projects experimenting with it.
Some companies say they're building " private blockchains ." Others think the whole concept is suspect because every transaction must be broadcast to every node in the network for the system to work, and this is inefficient.
Regardless of how the technology is used, we're going to see basic finance products that use blockchain tech within a few years . We may also see entire markets where blockchain-based assets trade - much as bitcoin does now - without any involvement from traditional banks or exchanges.
And as with other technologies now used every day, like GPS positioning or the internet itself, it will be hard to imagine life without blockchain tech.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta