The Curious Case of Blockchain

Let’s be clear about Blockchain, again

All of us will be enjoying technological advancement of blockchain like internet.

But how much is blockchain ready for

actual service?

Source: Pixabay

I know and I get it.

Another article on blockchain. It is like serving more dishes after you called it off like partissier asking for taste testing of cheesecake with

recipe but with different kinds of flavors.

Blockchain has been ongoing and ever-changing topic in global economic and tech landscape that report every single move of Bitcoin like traders checking on live stock report.

Even with books, news, and videos about

blockchain flooding in as hot trend worldwide, how much do we really know about blockchain and how is it actually benefiting us in general?

Definition of technological disruption and

current system sounds rather a plethora of

assumptions and prematurity.

In conclusion first, blockchain has long way to go. The similarity between internet and

blockchain is that both has struggled to deliver concrete version of service of which people

are actually using daily basis during the early

phase. According the World Internet Usage

and Population Statistics, penetration rate of

internet usage is about 57%, meaning more

than half of entire global population has

access to the internet every day.

Growth rate of internet usage between 2000 and 2019 is whopping 1,114%. Internet is what it is today, but it took 20 years to be Web 2.0, the very latest version of internet that we are using today. Internet became like the plate of

the earth, as it generated such a historical

terminology called digital economy.

Let’s take a tour for some clarity about

blockchain.

Like a word itself, blockchain is a technology

for result of approved digital transaction data

forming chain as data piles up. This is

implemented as every transaction is notified

to all the authorized participants within the

Peer-to-Peer network for validation and

approval under Consensus algorithm.

Approved transaction becomes a block, and

growing number of transactions become a

chain by being added to a public ledger.

Then, public ledger is spread across the

network and distributed to all participants

who will hold a digital copy of the ledger.

Block is time-stamped since data can be added to the block in timely manner, meaning it is

immutable. Think of it as credit card bill in

digital format as your daily credit card

transactions add up to be a block.

Those growing list of transactions sum up to

be your monthly bill. So very first daily

transaction records become a genesis block

and as cumulative transactions add more blocks, they are connected with previous blocks and form a chain of which becomes your monthly bill, sort of. Like all other bills, they contain

sensitive information such as your service ID, phone number, date of birth, and more that

belongs to only you. What blockchain does

differently is each block contains a cryptographic feature called a hash since blocks are secured by cryptographic hash of previous block,

unless they will not be connected in particular chain due to failure of authentication.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/, file:blockchain_workflow

Core of blockchain technology is a distributed

ledger for collection of data. It is the

converted version of old way of record keeping on papers into digital format. Purpose is

same, keep the record for storing, tracking,

and authenticating. It goes back to as old as

the time of discovery of papyrus paper and

pencil, and trading the values of commodities

for survival. It is about recording YOUR DATA after all. It is for security of YOUR DATA as

well. It is about proving your ownership

publicly. Humans started to trade values of

which led to the birth of marketplace.

Commodity trading needed more open space

in large scale as part of network effect; more

people, more commodity, higher value, bigger market. The efficiency started to kick-in and

play huge part as people gathered one common place for selling and buying at the same time.

Rise of market opened up ample opportunities for parties interested in market growth such as old forms of diners, inn, transportations,

personal lenders as ancient form as bank, and of course merchants and collectors.

As commodity trading evolved into financial

trading due to inconvenience of transporting

stacking up of size and weight, that is how

currency was taking its crucial role in market

as means and medium of credit and trust in

transparent value; make a payment off price

tag. With development of trade and commerce, towns and villages have evolved into society even today.

More to the point, as value of trade increased, so did the value of commodities and resources that related to it. Regardless of producer’s

capability, there was always a commodity that stood out for sale. People carried what they

could carry with two hands and bit more than they could handle. As trade became profitable along with birth of currency, people could

have surplus in inventory and storage.

Like aforementioned, products that stood out created higher value, thus became assets.

Assets led to management to keep such value intact and ledger was crucial to tool to keep its record such as early version of SKU, stock

keeping unit, and birth of safe for security and protection. Breach for higher value has always existed. That was why ledger played complete role as record of asset ownership in permanent documented way. That was how trade and

marketplace scaled up rapidly and expanded

to international trading and financing.

Once again, pen and paper played critical role

in introduction of ledger and written version

of what we call data today.

Therefore, even with technological transformation throughout the centuries, form of asset

has expanded to digital while core value

stayed same and steady. Asset equals the

equity with liquidity. Blockchain can be the

latest armor to safeguard such value in good

hands upon my permission with consensus

manner.

Ledger and rise of asset values led to another phase of asset management — cryptography. Cryptography is as old as human history. As

long as difference in value exists, so does the

cryptography for protecting and securing of

asset regardless of its form from third party,

man-in-the-middle, bad actors, and irrelevant parties. Think of Indiana Jones. He did not

march through the temples to get his wished

treasures. Rather he risked his life to make his way to the treasure by going through multi-layered entrapments such as booby traps, guards, enigma, and code-breakings.

Data is called digital gold and its value will only grow as time goes on. Personal data is at

serious risk as of today with rise of hackers,

middleman, and system failure in the world of cyber security. Basically, blockchain plays a

role with combination of ancient tools coated with cutting-edge technology.

Through advanced cryptography, blockchain

provides anonymity, immutability, validation,

authentication, and management of assets and data including recording and tracking with

digital ledger. Blockchain is composed of

history of different technologies such as ledger, cryptography, storage, consensus, security,

and immutability — early phase of modern day democracy.

So many terminologies are thrown around.

Let’s go over what really matters in the real

world.

Digital economy for internet. Decentralized

economy for blockchain.

So is this same digital economy? No. Not until proven otherwise. It is conceptual theory

regarding decentralized characteristic of

blockchain since data of ordered transactions

is not stored in central server only but in many servers due to its consensus algorithm to

prevent hacking or destruction of original copy. That is how decentralization works.

However, applying to economy is not that

simple. Web 2.0 had historical revolution over last 20 years, and it proved its impact in

changing of economic landscape completely.

According to the bureau of economic analysis showed that digital economy, fully digital goods and services on online, takes 6.9% of GDP or around 1.4 billion USD. That is in U.S only.

Numbers skyrocket in global scale.

Decentralized economy in blockchain is not

specific in numbers yet due to its immaturity

of such technology and market. There are only forecasts, so there needs to be more time for growth and its applications.

So as we covered before, benefits of

blockchain are governed by rules.

Blockchain will deliver security, immutability,

transparency, and cost-effectiveness in

decentralized and distributed network with

consensus if rules are followed by participants.

It is not the cure for all the disease. It is not

the perfect pill for every single societal

problem and business innovation.

Whole industry has been pushing blockchain

to be completed in such a hurry. Technology

never worked that way. Moreover, blockchain

is born out of current problems of centralized system and related vulnerability. In that sense, blockchain set the world on fire in extremely weird way. Of course, innovation of technology does not rely on its maker. But it delivers lifelong value if it is shifting the global paradigm

or daily behaviors of almost everyone.

It is easy to come up with names like Steve

Jobs for smartphone, Alan Turing for computer science, Elon Musk for Tesla’s unique projects like electric car, SpaceX, and Hyperloop.

They put their products in customers’ hands.

Customers can use it every day and they know who made it with which brand it leads to.

They all come together to become the value of brand and technology, to the far extent,

society and country. Blockchain has not

reached such feat yet. It may take more than

20 years. Hopefully it is a lot less than 20 years since now we have internet already.

According to Gartner’s recent report on

blockchain said that “By 2021, 90% of current enterprise blockchain platform implementations will require replacement within 18 months

to remain competitive, secure, and avoid

obsolescence. Gartner’s report mentioned

about ‘Fragmented Blockchain Platform

Market’ as its major cause since blockchain

platforms have been confusing potential suitors due to lack of clarity on implementation of

blockchain features for actual use cases.

The point is clear. Wait until you use it on daily basis.