Interesting Facts on Blockchain
Blockchain, an ingenious invention, is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. This blazing new age technology has the potential to impact every industry from finance to manufacturing to educational institutes. Here are seven interesting facts on Blockchain Technology that will leave you spellbound.
1. The thesis of “Blockchain Technology” is back-dated as early as 1991. Though the term Blockchain was not coined then, the first work on a cryptographically secured chain of blocks was described in 1991 by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta. They wanted to implement a system where documents’ timestamps could not be tampered with or backdated. In 1992, Bayer, Haber and Stornetta incorporated Merkle trees to the design, which improved its efficiency by allowing several documents to be collected into one block.
2. Bitcoin was conceptualized and invented in the year 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
The receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was cypherpunk Hal Finney, who created the first reusable proof-of-work system (RPOW) in 2004.
Bitcoin is decentralized and has no central governing body.
3. Blockchain technology has managed and distributed over $270 Billions in transactions. Research from Gartner says that 300 million blockchain transactions were processed through the end of 2017.
4. In its latest report, blockchain research group Diar reports that blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused startups have raised nearly $3.9 billion through VC investments in the first three quarters of this year — that is up by 280 percent compared to the whole of 2017. The promising blockchain technology has garnered investments from top venture capitalist funds eager to get hands on the next generation tech. Explaining why it believes VC has seen a sudden spike in popularity among startups seeking funding, Diar says that 70 percent of ICO tokens are now valued lower than during their respective sales. Further, “the majority of tokens have dropped in price by more than 90 percent from their all time highs,” it said.
5. Blockchain can save banks, billions of dollars.
Incorporating blockchain in banking system can on an average cut operational costs to above 30%, saving banks, billions of dollars.
Read more on blockchain enabled solutions, here.
6. Bitcoin Mining has high electricity consumption.
Bitcoin Mining requires many computers around the world to get the job done. This causes a lot of electricity to be used in the process as the more people there are trying to mine Bitcoin, the more computing power is used, therefore causing more electricity to be used. It is said that the amount of electricity used to mine bitcoin, is equivalent to the electricity usage of Ireland.
7. Blockchain — The new HR Favourite.
As the technology evolves, the blockchain focused recruitment drives is at its peak with large organizations like IBM leading the race. IBM is said to have dedicated about 1000 employees in the blockchain vertical.
This in turn has increased the demand of Blockchain courses with education institutes exploring and chartering necessary syllabus for different groups of blockchain enthusiasts.
IIM,Lucknow and Blockchain Lab India come together to initiate: “In-Residence Blockchain Course for Executives and Entrepreneurs”
We are at the cusp of history with Blockchain set to revolutionize the world.
It’s time to learn all you can about blockchain technology and get your team working to figure out what opportunities it can create for your organization.