“There has been a lot of prejudice in the #bitcoin space. It takes a lot to uncover the true potential in the midst of misconceptions and misdirections.”
I understand that a good majority need not understand how #bitcoin technically function, as not many understood how a personal computer technically function. But it is very essential for everyone to perceive its capabilities and the implications or applications that it sets to bring to this world.
#bitcoin has just started what could be a very fundamental restructuring to how the world works.
“It brings a very drastic paradigm shift that demands revolutionary transformation at the grassroots rather than evolutionary upgradation of apex corporate knowledge hubs.”
The initial advent of #bitcoin (the crypto-currency) is set to unravel a humongous cascading effect on to different technological, financial, scientific, legal and social layers.
Taking a distant standpoint on price predictions,from a non-technical perspective, the following seven core aspects could be attributed as the unique selling points that #bitcoin offers in its current form:
- Business model for Open Source
- Micropayments
- Banking the unbanked
- Distributed + decentralized economy
- Low cost remittances
- Programmable money
- Smart Contracts
While there exists a lot other features which need serious focus, let me leave some food for a future argument.
I would like to discuss more on these seven core aspects which can form a foundational layer to a bright future ahead.
Business model for Open Source
#bitcoin has just proved the market with a successful business model on top of an open source contribution which has been seen replicated by numerous projects around the world and kickstarted a new movement of decentralising economy which are popularly termed as ICOs (Initial Coin Offering).
It has just brought a pivotal shift of financial power and freedom to the open source contributors. Anyone from anywhere in the world can put upright the ideology and project implementation strategies alongside the token sale to procure funding required for the project.
We are near to a future with dominance of crowdfunded companies running completely out of the financial frameworks of today leapfrogging over the paperwork and restrictions of floating a global public corporation.
Micropayments
#bitcoin network supports micropayments out of the box. Additionally, the network expresses the capability to accommodate further technology layers which can scale the network to handle nano-payments.
What micro or nano payments can bring to the financial world is yet unfathomable. This could be a long yearning answer to the online ad-blocking user communities or just a beginning of a new emerging insurance market for unsecured loans at a time scale of sub-seconds.
We will be seeing services offered in a more fluid architecture, with lease periods squeezed down to minutes if not seconds and currency becomes the next medium of monetary expression rather than just a proof of value system in the hands of the authoritarians.
Banking the unbanked
The current business systems built on top of trust and profitability are not practically scalable any further to provide services to the underprivileged. There exists different dimensions of limitations ranging from establishment of physical infrastructure to political frictions among different legal environments discouraging market competition and driving the costs up.
Also there is a significant risk weaved into these corporate structures which could result in a massive collapse of the global financial system running the whole economy into darkness at some point of time, if not now.
#bitcoin just proposes a visionary alternative to the current financial system which hold the capacity to accommodate the current systems as a subset alongside providing opportunity to onboard the unbanked.
With more capable individuals plugged into the global economy, there will be an accelerated contribution to the development of the world. Connected to the secure global financial platform, there is a parity in final privilege resulting in self-esteem and motivation.
Distributed + decentralized economy
Probably the most important aspect to understand and focus upon.
#Blockchain, the fancy buzzword often in the media represents a distributed and decentral record keeping technique with categorical security provided as per the choice of consensus mechanisms between these distributed nodes in the network.
Decentral architecture arranging the intensive proof-of-work contributed to #bitcoin empowers the network with practical immutability that has just raised the bar for digital reliability which opens up the possibility of synthetic trust constructed using mathematical algorithms.
Low cost remittances
While we already have professional remittance facilitators worldwide, there is a certain threshold of eligibility and significant cost to avail such services due to the broken corporate relationships between different legal environments as discussed earlier.
#bitcoin introduces first practical implementation of the concept of a global currency. Which not only lubricates the flow of remittances, but also encourage cross-border trade and commerce irrespective of the legal authority. This is a very crucial step towards the ideal globalisation and liberalisation of the economy.
Programmable money
The definition of ‘money’ tends to fade away further when it loses the rigidity.
When the code itself is capable of holding and transacting in the native currency rather than an abstracted layer on top, it unfolds a whole new age of machine autonomy where currency becomes a common language between the human and machine.
This paves way for a machine-payable web which would result in a more machine demanding ecosystem rather than a human demanding one putting humans out of many service houses due to a greater inclusion or machine brotherhood. There would be no wonder if you find that an autonomous service tier drone is one of the board members to the company you work for in near future. That just introduces the flavour of the third web — the machine payable web accompanied by advancements in AI techniques.
Smart Contracts
Probably the most talked upon or emphasised zone for capital investments in the fintech industry.
The native #bitcoin protocol offers a limited but powerful scope for designing complex and automated transaction contracts which behave as per the prior agreement of the concern parties in a completely autonomous fashion pulling down the need for an entrusted third party providers who have been handling these transaction contracts in the current systems.
More sophisticated smart contracts designed by combination with a variety of transactional contracts can result in completely autonomous corporations with network acting as the board that take truly democratic decisions. Soon we could witness the emergence of the DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations) contributing to different industrial sectors pushing the decision powers to the edges of the network.
These arguments clearly emphasize the foundational importance of the #bitcoin network and protocol together with the incentive token system to the future of the technological era that would encompass all the major industries in the coming decade.
(First published @ Tabloid11 — Link)
This is my first medium post. I would love to hear your side of the arguments.