Oraclize it. Why Bitcoin not very important.

Bitcoin, Ether and the innumerable sea of ​​altcoins do not delight me as a new digital currency. The revolution in this area is likely to be led by the central banks of countries by launching their powerful nodes and pools. And then they will turn it into a controlled evolution creating difficulties for the movement of “free coins”, while offering the convenience of national crypto-currencies with all the advantages of a New Digital Money.

Why am I so sure? First, the uncontrolled economy has already shown itself in an eerie way in the US not so long ago, and the money supply is almost the last instrument of regulation. And secondly, it is too beneficial for national regulators to have a block of cash transactions, this opens up unprecedented means of combating tax frauds.

As an investment asset, crypto-currencies are also not interesting either in the short or long term. Here and now this casino or CryptoKitties sex. In the long run it is an asset with dubious inner asset value. It’s very easy to run a new altcoin and lure the computing power and community interest in it. The story with the appearance of Vitalik Buterin with a new “promising blockchain protocol” for me is quite indicative.

But nevertheless I am firmly convinced of the onset of unprecedented changes that the distributed registry will bring to us. It is the independent and unchanged storage of reliable data that will open a new economy with a high degree of confidence of its participants. But the old good human factor stands in the way of the most important achievement of the blockade-revolution. Let’s figure it out.

Meet Bill Campbell. He is a public notary. His job is to certify the fact of the presence of the signature holder personally when drafting the contract.

At the moment, the blockchain invites him to replace his book in which he makes notes. The data in this new digital distributed register of notarial acts will still be contributed by him. We have such a scheme.

Such a scheme has several advantages. The data can not be lost, can not be changed after the fact of deposit, it is much cheaper to store them. But still it is Bill Campbell’s judgments made in the distributed registry. Speaking in the language of the blockchain community — the consensus about the state of the outside world is determined by Bill on the basis of his observations and experience. That is, for the reliability of the data entered, new levels of verification are required. Someone should appoint Bill mentally suitable for this work.

Such a scheme only increases the effect of the human factor. Although this is the best that mankind could come up with at the moment. But there is one loophole for solving this problem. The blockchain protocol is ready to receive digital data and store it forever. If we replace Bill with a mechanism that unequivocally fixes the state of the external world that interests us and transfers it digitally to the block, we will get a much more stable model of work. Such mechanisms were called oracles.

Of course, in this case, we will need to worry about the transparency of the data-oraclizing scheme and the reliability of such mechanisms or institutions. But these are solvable problems, especially if you use the usual confidence-checking schemes. Institutes of certification, patent and copyright have accumulated a huge layer of methods that will have to be rewritten, but at the core suitable for this.

A few examples of ready-made oracles.

Etherisc this oracle does not need anything to pay you an insurance premium if your flight is delayed. You give him money — he will insure you. People in this scheme are not needed. Data on the delay of the flight is taken in digital form, decisions on payment are taken algorithmically.

МvDice this oracle acts as a croupier without the help of any people. Send him the money — in return receive a win with an accurately calculated and known probability. No fraud, an open register of completed bets / wins allows you to unambiguously verify its integrity.

GoldMint. Here the oracle is already quite material and is ready to certify the composition, weight and cost of the gold product in it placed. Again, the presence of a person is necessary only for pressing the button and placing the product in the receiving tray. All other judgments work on the basis of mechanisms and algorithms.

Then the movie in which there is no oracle and no blockchain. Here, just drones are making an inventory. It is enough to fantasize a bit to present a system of accurate and unambiguous analysis of warehouse stocks with the placement of information in the blockchain.

What gives us such a transition to the oriclizing-all-around? In the coming years, the confidence of the subjects of the economy will greatly increase, and the cost of transactions between them will dramatically decrease. And there will be a new, in my opinion, undervalued asset — honesty. The oracles will impartially submit data about all your actions, and bottomless blockchain-archives will store them. Store securely and forever. Being open and honest will become necessary for survival.