It is challenging to picture bitcoin making this world a better place. For most people, bitcoin is linked with criminals like Ross William Ulbricht of the Silk Road darknet and mishaps like the Mt. Gox exchange, which shut down in 2014 after misplacing thousands of bitcoin units.
Bitcoin is used to purchase illegal substances, trade weaponry, and people, and conceal criminal gains. And it has not been consistent: the price has fluctuated a lot, evoking something more akin to a casino than a foundation for a bright, stable future.
However, this underestimates the importance of bitcoin technology—this foundational mechanism, known as the blockchain, according to many wise and experienced individuals. You will read more about this in a further article.
It is a historically significant concept to solve major social issues. It could be what restores the Internet to its former glory before it was engulfed by Facebook, the NSA, and a slew of scammers. If blockchain proponents are correct, the technology will usher in a new era of extreme clarity, effortless trade, and genuine economic prosperity.
What Is The Blockchain And How Does It Work?
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A blockchain is a distributed ledger of digital events that does not rely on a central database. It runs on thousands of computers on the network, disseminating the record worldwide. The blockchain is similar to a communal brain that no one has authority over but can see. It has both a public and a personal aspect to it.
You protect your confidential info as a user, enabling it to be displayed only when you make a transaction, such as sending bitcoin to someone else. However, currency is not the only asset you may trade.
Digital assets such as stocks, bonds, and airline miles can also be stored and transferred. You can build digital IDs that allow you to sign papers and access.
This is because the blockchain enables peer-to-peer partnerships without using “trusted middlemen” in all types of relationships, not just human-to-human ones. It can also automate machine-to-machine communication. The new technology allows for real-time verification of digital records for almost everything.
Who Are The People That Are Going To Use Blockchain?
Like the Internet itself, Blockchain technology began as a hobby for computer scientists. You had to download a mysterious bitcoin software from a shady website to participate. However, the blockchain is becoming more widespread now, and its mystique is dissipating.
It is the same as whenever the commercialized Internet first became available, and people could access web browsers and email. Companies like Google and Amazon do not consider themselves blockchain firms, just as they do not consider themselves HTTP or HTML companies.
Blockchain technology assists with two significant issues in today’s society: economic rights and economic inclusion. An estimated 5.5 billion people, especially in developing countries, are unable to prove ownership of land, enterprises, or automobiles.
Rights To Property
Many countries struggle to keep accurate property and corporate ownership data. Their protocols are either incomplete or easily manipulated by those in charge. Officials in Honduras were able to take beachfront properties and buy electoral votes using land titles due to this.
When citizens lack legal ownership rights, they constantly worry that their property will be taken away at any time. They also will not seek a bank for a loan to boost the home’s worth. If anyone comes to the door with a pistol, the blockchain will not enforce rights. However, it can establish proper records, making confiscation more difficult.
Remittances
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The blockchain can lower the cost of transmitting “remittances” from wealthy people to relatives in poorer countries. These payments, which totaled $440 billion in 2015, outnumber foreign aid.
Despite this, they are currently associated with significant transaction fees. For example, sending $100 in cash from the United States to India using Western Union costs $11.
Abra, which garnered $12 million in venture capital funding the year before, leverages the blockchain to facilitate direct payments between individuals without using a traditional agent network. Instead, it uses its members as tellers, similar to how Uber groups car drivers together.
You deposit dollars into an account with a debit card or by reuniting with another user and offering them cash to send money. The funds are converted to bitcoin and sent to a mobile phone in another country, circumventing usual rules.
Chains Of Open Supply
Many goods these days profess to be sustainably sourced, from wood furniture to cotton T-shirts. However, it is not always easy to believe these assertions. Was that organic cotton indeed grown on that Turkish farm? Was the beef truly grown on such-and-such a farm and delivered to the city last Monday?
According to several other blockchain applications are where the blockchain comes in. It enables producers and merchants to map and follow supply chains, resulting in transparent and unalterable product development and delivery documentation. It also allows certifying agencies, such as the Forest Stewardship Council, to certify what transpired in the chain.
Furthermore, several other blockchain applications are either in the works or have a bright future.
Aid From Around The World
Every year, billions of dollars in foreign help come to underdeveloped countries, yet often this money is not used to its full potential.
The blockchain might be used to send digital money without the necessity of expensive or downright corrupt intermediaries.
There would be a database that kept track of transfers, and money could be sent straight to recipients’ phones, allowing them to make their judgments about how to utilize the gifts (donor agencies would not send in-kind things that might not be appropriate).
Donors might also connect money to pre-agreed milestones on the ground by using “smart contracts.”
All Persons Deserve Identity
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Aid organizations are interested in blockchain’s potential to help disenfranchised people establish identities. Access to higher education, health, and other welfare care is limited due to a lack of identification. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, 55% of the population lacks an official identifying record, implying that they do not exist for official reasons.
A Genuine Sharing Economic System
The “sharing economy” includes companies like Uber and Airbnb. But they do not share anything in actuality. They are organizers of underutilized assets, such as your house or automobile, which they profitably sell.
When you exit a partaking vehicle, Uber, for example, takes 20% of the amount you pay. Even though the data behind the transactions on their network is undoubtedly a significant societal good, these sharing businesses preserve it.
The blockchain has the potential to enable us to share products and services without the use of intermediaries, resulting in cheaper and more effortless transactions.
