What’s all the fuss about the blockchain (in 150 words for business people)?

Ansgar Knipschild
Aug 25, 2017 · 2 min read

Please ignore everything you’ve heard before: A public blockchain is just a global database, accessible for everybody, and with 3 special features on top:

  1. It has no owner and no central administrator because it is based on a network of thousands of computers who share their capacity (“P2P” or “peer-to-peer”). Older people might remember Napster which was based on the same principle. This means diversified risk, because the system can not “crash” or be “down” by design, there is simply no single point of failure for hackers. Until now no blockchain has been hacked: The Bitcoin blockchain is happily alive since 8 years and holds 40 billion USD very safely.
  2. Everybody can write to the database without registration. Security is granted by self generated passwords (“private keys”). Again: There is no central admin or company.
  3. Data is only appended, it can not be changed afterwards. Every record is encrypted. Again: There is no central admin or company.

Putting these three core features together you can now build any business system:

  • Every “asset” (money, risk, certificate, contract, claim…) can be easlily digitized and transferred between the participants in a very secure and trustable way.
  • No more “building your own application/database/server/user management”.
  • No more “everybody keeps it’s own data and tries to sync it with other companies”. And that’s the key feature for a new generation of digital marketplaces, lowering the entry barriers for participants dramatically.

Thus for business people “blockchain” is not about “bitcoin”, “crypto” and “peer-to-peer”. It’s more about joining a globally available business platform, lowering cost, reducing systemic risk and using a much more resilient digital infrastructure which is open for everybody: For you — but for your customers and competitors, too! And many of them are already checking the benefits for themselves…

More info: www.mgm-tp.com

Radical Uncertainty

Digital risks, digital assets and digital markets in an uncertain world. Thoughts and actions about insurance, marketing and technology.

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    Ansgar Knipschild

    Written by

    It’s all about digital markets / assets / risks.

    Radical Uncertainty

    Digital risks, digital assets and digital markets in an uncertain world. Thoughts and actions about insurance, marketing and technology.

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