In technology, there are many geeks, myself included. Though, some people differ from one another. How can I define a geek to you? Well, there are many different kinds out there, so let me begin with friendly geeks at first. Video games have changed the world, and many youth, or even adults, have become obsessed with their favorite games.
For those who have never played online games straight through a whole night or day, or both, for days—might find it difficult to understand why certain people become addicted to video games. Those who just love to play and spend money on games is one thing, but there are other types of geeks too. Some nerds are obsessed with new tools and software and believe they MUST be tried out ASAP, even if some of this software is downloaded from torrent websites illegally. There are other geeks too, who would not necessarily download everything for free, but instead would purchase the original software or tools to feel better by having the real thing.
The authentic software always provides a better feeling, as well, many geeks buy it out of respect for the creators, contributing to the software developers and designers. When it comes to Blockchain, there are multiple companies that have been formed recently which are designing a particular protocol that would allow certain online games to be played by using their own in-house built cryptocurrency. Topping it off, they have created excellent online games that once the gamers join and play, they would participate in their cryptocurrency by providing CPU or GPU power from their Game PC-s, PlayStations, X-Box-s and so on.
Because these protocols would be fully utilized and continuously contributed, its value would begin to increase dramatically. As you can see, Blockchain would allow creating not only a new cryptocurrency, but an online gaming community, who would use a particular Blockchain technology. I have mentioned an example of gaming. On the other hand, there are many companies that are now into similar Blockchain technology, such as music on demand, movies on demand, social networking sites and so on. One of the biggest inventions so far, using the Blockchain is the creation of smart contracts, such as Ethereum.
There are many other alternative Blockchains that exists to date, and each will shape our future at some point. To mention some other important choices, there are various decentralized crowdfunding, healthcare, supply chain, blogging sites, and real-time sharing; but the biggest of all is IoT. IoT, also knows as Internet of Things, for Blockchain is increasing rapidly in recent years. Internet of Things is also called smart devices, or connected devices, that are physical devices, or even driverless vehicles. The purpose of these devices is to log in to the network and begin to share data one to another. Automating everyday life is a small-scale business, such as software, electronics, and sensors that would interconnect to each other.
Nevertheless, when it comes to large scale, that’s where the bit money is, such as virtual power plants, smart homes, intelligent transportations, or even smart cities capable of operating using Blockchain technology. There are big scale business plans for big boys that require years of planning; however, the technology to allow it, now exists. These projects would provide opportunities for direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit in addition to reducing human intervention. M2M – Machine to machine communications already exist.
But, Blockchain will enhance this beyond, by speeding up virtualizations and trust collecting data into blocks, helping to use our data more efficiently. Currently, there are thousands of banks all over the world. Therefore, the current banking system will not stop tomorrow. It will require having at least a decade, if not two. But, the technology already exists to use other methods than banks, all that is needed is for Blockchain technology to be applied by all our business partners, or employees, or employers. It is straightforward really.
Yet, most of us are very comfortable with the current system; therefore, the change might take a long time. When gold was retired as a currency and paper money was applied, it took many long years to implement and make everyone understand that wages are now not paid in gold, but with paper. As I mentioned before, gold is still an excellent payment method in most countries; but, it is not accepted everywhere.
When you go to the local supermarket, you cannot pay by gold, well some places are possible; nevertheless, most places will not accept it. Same as when you purchase something online, you cannot pay in gold, and there are other reasons too because it is an old method. First, let’s look at the flexibility of the gold. Imagine that you want to go to the local Coffee shop to have a cappuccino. The idea to pay in gold for a cappuccino is daunting.
How would you break or cut the right amount of gold to the shop owner, besides the point, what if you make a larger cut than you have intended in the first place? The point is that any precious metal as a payment method cannot be widely implemented. It’s heavy; it’s difficult to cut or break to the right amount of pieces required; therefore, the idea of using it in the future for money is just not suitable.
Unfortunately, paper money or cash, keeps on getting printed all the time. Therefore, it’s impossible to tell how much is on the market. The more and more it’s printed, the less it’s worth.
From history, we have learned that after a while there is so much cash getting printed that eventually, it all becomes worthless. Inflation becomes the main issue, lots of people become poor with all their saved money in the bank, and then governments begin to print new paper money for the so-called new economy. The problem is that this system has failed miserably—on multiple occasions; as a result, we all know that it’s worthless. The problem is that this system is centralized by governments and banks that average people have no power to go against. Digital currency on the other hand is unstoppable, and such like Bitcoin, can change the current system very quickly.
Another issue with paper money is that it is very easily counterfeited. There are countless incidents every day involving all kinds of paper money. It doesn’t matter how well paper money is made; it can be duplicated. Consequently, counterfeiting will always be around. Cryptocurrency on the other hand cannot be faked, cannot be copied, cannot be counterfeited. Because Blockchain represents trust and the exact amount of digital money, keeping just that in mind, you have to understand that cryptocurrencies easily can overtake any paper money, especially if it’s centralized. Only 21 million Bitcoins will ever be created.
So how can there be enough for everyone? Well, each Bitcoin has 100 million Satoshis. I am not very good at math, so I have used a calculator to understand how much Satoshi will ever be produced, and the number looks like this: 2,100,000,000,000,000. There are close to 8 billion people living on earth.
So next, I have divided the huge number by 8 billion, to understand how many Satoshis each person on earth could have distributed equally. The number I got is: 262,500. The reality is that currently, 60% of the population will never even have $20,000.00 saved in their whole lives; But, before you think that is the final outcome; let me tell you something else. Blockchain technology allows each Satoshi to be broken into other fractions such as another 100 million pieces, and if that’s still not enough, those fractions can be further divided into another 100 million of even smaller portions, and so on, and so on.
That being said, I hope that you understand that Bitcoin itself, can supply the whole world when it comes to a new currency. But, there are many other currencies already, and the banks have begun to think about creating their own digital currencies too. Currently using swift, making international transactions can be a pain. Instead of taking a few seconds like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it can take 3-5 working days. Besides taking too long to transfer money, it might also be unavailable to individual countries, not to mention the fees. Making payments with several cryptocurrencies that are using the Blockchain as their platform, are not only super-fast, but have very cheap costs, if any.
Additionally, anyone can have a Bitcoin wallet online. When you go to the bank to open a new bank account, you must fit all the criteria that the banks ask for. Such might be, that you must have a valid address, you must be 18 years old, you must have proof from your employer that states your occupation as well your wages and so on. Instead of all these headaches, if you have a smartphone, you are able to open a Bitcoin account without any of the aforementioned criteria. Then, in a few seconds, you can begin to even make international transactions. The current issue is that if I want to buy something from you, I have to make a transfer from my bank through PayPal, to your bank, which eventually would pay you. It takes at least one other so called trusted 3rd party to make a payment. But, Blockchain would validate that transaction for us. Therefore, we wouldn’t require banks or any other trusted 3rd parties anymore. All that is necessary is internet access for few minutes.
You have to understand that there are 1.7 billion people currently have no bank account, for various reasons. They might not be qualified enough; they might not even have the proper clothes to enter a bank. They might just choose not to have a bank account, but mostly, so many people just live too far from any bank. Therefore, they have decided not to have one.
They might have internet access here and there, so Blockchain might as well become their bank, right? Why not? It would be very beneficial to them, and it’s already happening with lots of people. What the banks have realized is that it might be a good idea to create their own cryptocurrency, so in case Blockchain takes over the world, at least they are prepared for the big boom.
