The rise and rise of Blockchain

Blockchain technology is all the rage, moving from a hobbyist tech with a small set of early adopters into the mainstream. Blogs, websites, companies and news outlets are now commonly publishing details on the advancements and usage of Blockchain around the world. This exposure is pushing the subject in front of millions of additional people which inevitably increased popularity as more people explore the possibilities with this distributed ledger technology (DLT)

Blockchain, a technology in it’s infancy, arguably not fully understood or realised yet, brings advancements in technology which are only now coming to realisation in the mainstream. I am a firm believer that the technology which originally made popular by Bitcoin is here to stay.

Bitcoin is a simplistic and purist view of what a Blockchain can be and one which in my opinion will inevitably be super-seeded as other platforms advance and the technology is realised and utilised to solve real world problems.

Companies around the world are investing and looking to Blockchain as an alternative to solve problems which exist with centralised transitional transaction based models. For a developer like myself I see this as a game changer in the industry and the world we live in.

I am yet to be completely sold on the idea of cryptocurrency taking over the role that typically fiat based currencies play in the worldwide economic forum but I am confident that the technology which is backs Blockchain will be here to stay.

The idea of governments allowing such a decentralised and distributive currency model is hard to imagine. I am sure Bitcoin and other alt-coins will survive in some form but whether they will replace existing currency is quite a far way off.

Blockchain however will start to drip through into everyday software solving problems which traditional transaction management brings. The technology itself is still very young and with advancements in Smart Contracts this is only set for further utilisation in the real world.

The discipline of software engineering will absorb Blockchain technology and will become another tool in the arsenal of software houses and teams around the world. As more and more big players get onboard, more SDKs will be developed and one click deploy blockchains are developed, you will see these changes come to fruition.

Although the above is all conjecture, opinion and hype, it’s hard to not believe it once you start to immerse yourself in the technology and its possibilities. I see it similar to the explosion of so called web 2.0 and the advancements in web & browser technology in the early 2000s. These things slowly creep up until you reach a tipping point, the technology and tooling around it reaches critical mass so it becomes variable and suitable for use in mainstream software engineering solutions. Until this time it will always remain a niche market for the brave and the believers.

There is a chance that Blockchains will become part of everyday life and trickle down so that many things we use and interact with today will be backed by Blockchain technology, unbeknown to the everyday consumer.

Hopefully the above all becomes true and the foundation technology that is Blockchain or Distributed Ledge technology (DLT) makes it to where I think it’s capable of making.

If you are interested in seeing and hearing more then sign up to the first Blockchain Manchester meet on October 24th: https://www.meetup.com/BlockchainManchesterMeetup/