Sitting at your work desk and staring blankly at the computer screen, you receive a notification on your message box. It says, “You just received funds in Bitcoin” from a friend on the other side of the globe…Blockchain in action. Or, maybe you utilized the services of logistics companies, presumably DHL or Maersk, to send secure shipments to a coworker… Even more Blockchain technology.
Blockchain application isn’t fettered to just Bitcoins and logistics. This technology is already impacting education, entertainment, government, and healthcare companies.
These various applications of Blockchain constitute an encrypted, cumulative, distributed ledger composed of blocks of transactions that gets confirmed by miners, which, for Bitcoin, led to the first Genesis block, whose instance is timed as 18:15:05 GMT on the 3rd of January 2009, signifying the start of the blockchain application.
In retrospect, Bitcoin did substantially influence the creation of Blockchain 13years ago. This network was developed by (an) unknown person(s), under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, behind the online cash currency Bitcoin. Since this development, several applications have cropped up to spawn one of the most significant innovations of the 21st century, the Blockchain.
Blockchain technology evolved from a Bitcoin seminal whitepaper to a form of cash capable of peer-to-peer privileges without external dictations or assistance. To provide a clearer picture of blockchain technology’s progress, I’ve put together a synoptical timeline of its history, from its inception to its widespread adoption.
Blockchain Timeline
Genesis(1991 – 2008)
1991: Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta proposed the concept of Blockchain. They envisioned creating a cryptographically encrypted data system to protect documents and chronological data from being tampered
1998: Computer scientist Nick Szabo kickstarted the development of ‘bit gold,’ a decentralized digital currency two years later. These developments most definitely laid the groundwork for the idea of secured cryptographic chains.
Transactions Wave (2008 – 2009)
2008: Satoshi Nakamoto conceptualized the first version of blockchain technology, Bitcoin 1.0.
2009: Nakamoto published a white paper on digital ledger technology, the foundation for creating Bitcoin, and the eventual first use of bitcoin for transactions.
Blockchain’s ability to improve digital trust through decentralization, where no one has complete control, was discussed in this white paper.
Contracts Wave(2013 – 2015)
2013: Vitalik Buterin published a whitepaper as the foundation for “Ethereum,” formerly known as Bitcoin 2.0.
2014: Blockchain started gaining prominence in the financial market as companies considered and adopted this technology.
2015: Ethereum was revealed to be a better version of Bitcoin 1.0, and it was released as a public blockchain with more features than its counterpart’s peer-to-peer network. The ability to develop new decentralized applications using blockchain technology was made possible by Ethereum’s (a.k.a. Bitcoin 2.0) new feature to record additional data assets.
Application Wave(2018 – Present)
2018: NEO and IOTA are blockchain variants designed to remedy some of the problems in Bitcoin and Ethereum while also adding new functionality to existing blockchain capabilities.
Present: Blockchain has evolved into a business-oriented solution known as Baas. Supply chains, smart markets, central bank money, crypto assets, and decentralized exchanges have all been supported by blockchain technology.
Final Thoughts
The internet is great for sharing and communication but is deeply flawed in commerce and privacy. Let us imagine everyone has an identity in a box that stores structured and transactional data. When we initiate a transaction, this massive catenation of blocks gives away shreds of information needed to complete the transaction while also collecting data synchronously. The data set collected would uphold decentralization, transparency, immutability, and security as its core values while still getting monetized arbitrarily. In layman’s terms, that is Blockchain, an unalterable, impregnable, distributed database of digital assets.
Blockchain has undoubtedly become an essential part of the financial community, gaining notoriety due to its immersion in the tech world and rapidly moving to the forefront of new technology trends. Call it the World Wide Ledger or, as I call it, ‘The internet of everything!’ Blockchain technology enables smart contracts, government services, decentralized autonomous entities and transactions, and a freely dispersed global network that substantially impacts how we use the internet. Isn’t that extraordinary?
I believe such underlying technology is unparalleled as the most significant and intricate innovation in the tech stratum, including the growth of Blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) and other Sisyphean improvements.
So, what are your thoughts on Blockchain and its evolution? Do you think its progression would make blockchain decisions a lot easier?
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