In 2018, the ‘block chain’ can not be overlooked as a major science and technology issue.
But the fact that the block chain has become a major issue of the year is a little absurd. It is not because of its technical value, but because it is an issue because of the related theme of virtual money.
The virtual currency boom has been gradually increasing since early 2017. It was no exaggeration to say that the virtual money boom swept the Republic of Korea as the end of the year came to an end.
Take bit coin as an example. In January 2017, the beat coin price was 1 million won. By December, however, the price surged to close to 25 million won.
This virtual money market was not only a beat coin. The prices of various virtual currencies have skyrocketed at the same time.
The price of Etherium in January 2017 was 10,000 won. By December, however, the city skyrocketed more than 200 times, forming a 2 million won line.
At that time, the block chain also got attention. The reason was simple. It is used as the base technology of virtual money. Almost all virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, Etherium, and Nem, are based on block chains.
For this reason, behind the block chain, the story of virtual money always followed. In my case as a block-chain expert, I think I got more questions about the virtual currency market forecast than last year’s technical questions about block chains.
Block Chains Independent from Virtual Currency
The virtual currency boom began to fade in 2018.
A typical case is the beat coin. Bitcoin, which has continued to decline since January this year, is worth W4.5 million as of early December.
The situation is the same for Etherium. From January to the end of this year, it continued to decline and dropped to 100,000 won.
Of course, the two virtual currency prices are declining from the short-term perspective of the one-year cycle, but increasing from the long-term perspective. This is because the current price is higher than last January.
However, due to the severe ups and downs, there are many negative people in the virtual money market. And this influence seems to affect block chain recognition as well.
I also often get a question from an acquaintance, “Is virtual money down and the block chain is falling?” In more severe cases, I often hear the phrase “block chain is over”.
However, this is a story that does not know the block chain.
Of course, because of the virtual currency, the block chain has attracted attention. However, the value of using a block chain is not limited to virtual money.
In other words, the value of a block chain is more than virtual money. Virtual currency is just one example of using block chains.
LG Economic Research Institute correctly analyzed this. In 2016, LG Economic Research Institute predicted that ‘the value of the block chain will be bigger than the beat coin’ in a report entitled ‘Block Chain, Beyond the Bit Coin and Beyond the World’.
Therefore, it is my opinion that the fall of virtual currency has not had any effect on the block chain. Rather, this year, the block chain received more attention as technology itself.
Gartner, a market research company, has been ranked among the top 10 promising technologies for the block chain this year.
The government budget for the block chain has also doubled. The Ministry of Science and Technology (Ministry of Information and Communication) has set a budget of 8.5 billion won in the “Public Leadership Pilot Project” next year, more than doubling from 4 billion won this year.
As such, the block chain is now beginning to leap from the virtual currency to an independent, full-fledged. So what specifically did the block chain in 2018 achieve?
The concept of block chain is established.
In 2018, the biggest achievement of the block chain is ‘value creation’.
Until the beginning of this year, the block chain was nothing more than an appendix to virtual money. Many people did not know and did not know what technical value a block chain had.
In this situation, the security industry was the first to pay attention to the block chain. This is due to the high integrity of the block chain. Block chaining is a kind of “shared lecture platform” that has value such as reliability, transparency and decentralization.
As the usefulness of the block chain became known to some extent, the government also made a full-fledged move.
In the case of the Ministry of Information and Communication, several expert meetings were held to understand the value of the block chain. The Software Policy Research Institute (SPRI) has also set out the value of the block chain and has undertaken various tasks to derive the applicable industry.
In addition, STEPI, the Central Election Management Committee, and the Food Safety Research Institute conducted various research projects related to the block chain.
Scientific efforts continued. The Korean Block Chain Society held two block chain academic conferences this year. Through this, experts were able to share the academic research results of the block chain and establish the concept.
2018 is the year of the block chain 3.0
There was also a technical maturity of the block chain itself. It is overcoming several limitations that have been raised in the block chain, such as excessive computing power and slow transaction speed (TPS).
Until last year, platforms mainly used as block chaining services were Etherium and Bitcoin. These are called block chains 1.0 or block chain 2.0 generations.
However, there are limitations in applying the block chain up to the second generation to various industries. To complement this, block-chain platforms such as IOTA, EOS, NEM, and Ripple have emerged. For reference, these platforms are called Block Chain 3.0.
In 2018, domestic block chain companies developed a superior block chain 3.0 platform.
Gloucester has developed a block chain platform called Hycon. The platform can be used in a variety of areas such as proposal evaluation and local currency.
Based on its own algorithm, Jabston has introduced a block chain platform called a pressure chain suitable for local currency.
In addition, Blocko’s “aergo”, Icon Loop’s “Loopchain” and Simbuss’s block-chain platform have been developed.
As a result of the continuous introduction of technologically advanced block chain platforms both at home and abroad, the use of block chains is also increasing.
Indeed, this year, several block chain demonstration projects have been conducted and many successful cases have emerged. As a result, in 2019, more block chain services will be unfolding along with the spread of the block chain 3.0.
Yoo Sung-min IT columnist
Copyright holder 2018.12.26 © ScienceTimes
