Blockchain in the Eyes of a 19-Year-Old
By Rakshitha Leo on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Blockchain, an absolute game changer- a revolution or just another over futuristic scam? Hearing all about Blockchain over the news and sprawled across tech hubs, got me wondering, what really is it? Would it transform the way trade is being made forever? Is it really the golden wheel of our generation? Let’s dig deeper.
What is Blockchain?
The concept of Blockchain isn’t new at all. It was initially created in 1991 to timestamp digital documents. However, it wasn’t put to much use till 2009 when it was discovered by Satokshi Nakamoto to create the first ever cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Blockchain can be viewed as a decentralized, trustless ledger system that provides a pathway for varied kinds of trade. It predominantly comprises of a block that contains data, hash and the hash of a previous block. The data stored in a block is highly variable but mostly consists of the information of the sender, the receiver and the data of your choice. The hash is created by accepting an arbitrary amount of input data, applying some algorithm to it, and then a fixed-size output data-usually 256 bits is generated. The hash is always unique to a block. Modifying the contents of the block would alter the hash and it’s no longer the same block. The first hash is calculated for the first block(also known as the Genesis block) using the transactions inside that block. The sequence of initial transactions is used to calculate a block hash for the Genesis block. For every new block that is generated afterwards, the hash of a previous block is also used, as well as its own transactions, as input to determine its block hash. This is how a chain of blocks is formed, each new block hash pointing to the block hash that came before it. This system of hashing guarantees that no transaction in the history can be tampered with because if any single part of the transaction changes, so does the hash of the block to which it belongs, and any following blocks hashes as a result.Therefore, it would be fairly easy to catch any tampering as a result because you can just compare the hashes.
Where is Blockchain used?
Blockchain is used in varied domains across the world. It is used to create smart contracts, to ensure trustless trade between the buyer and the seller void of a third party, as a platform to trade cryptocurrency and has many other applications. The most widespread use of Blockchain in today’s world is without a doubt Cryptocurrency. After the first Cryptocurrency- Bitcoin was started in 2009, many other cryptocurrencies have since followed- Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Ripple, BAT and Neo to name a few. All of these utilise Blockchain as a dias for trade.
In the future, as predicted by the researchers and Blockchain enthusiasts, it could be used to trade energy, vote during elections, pay taxes, stay secure against identity theft, safeguard the real estate industry by enclosing every trade off of land and property with a contract and cease paid resources like books and music from being distributed illegally in the Interweb.
Is Cryptocurrency a solid investment?
The price of Cryptocurrency is solely decided by supply, demand and the hype of the cryptocurrency. Since it is completely unregulated, it leads to incredible highs and dizzying lows. The hype attracts crowds of investors, which makes the stock price of cryptocurrency go up rapidly, attracting ever more people until reaching a point where the price becomes overinflated. When the hype dies down, the value crashes along with it thereby making cryptocurrency extremely hyper-volatile with the possibility to drop to near-zero at any time. Along with its turbulent nature, it’s not a solid investment due to the outrageous amount of it being stolen. Over 1.1 billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency have been reportedly stolen in the first half of 2018 alone. Thefts can occur by code savvy people entering the dark web and using malicious softwares like Ransomware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim’s data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid. The theft cannot be tracked since it’s a completely anonymous mode of business void of a third party to regulate the transactions being made.
Therefore the combination of the increased instability of the value of the cryptocurrency, the threat of it being stolen and the absence of a monitoring body makes it a non-lucrative investment. For the adventurous, looking to make quick money and wouldn’t be highly affected by the money possibly turning to zero, it can be seen as an investment option. But for those looking for a stable, low-risk,diversified investment, cryptocurrency wouldn’t be the most ideal option.
Is it too futuristic for the majorly technology illiterate world we live in?
In my opinion, I believe Blockchain is an absolutely prodigious invention with an enormous scope to expand and possibly transform the market forevermore. But at this very point of time, due to the vastly persisting digital illiteracy and the absence of support from the government and other third party institutions, I do think it’s still in it’s early stages and requires a lot more research and exploration till common man can trust and stand by the system. An adequate amount of trial and error combined with varied other experiments must be carried out to make sure that the system is both fool proof and can be easily accessed by everyone around the world without imposing a high fee structure.
While pondering if its the golden wheel of our generation, I’m going to partially agree and hopefully not too far along in the future, in about 15–20 years, it’s utilised in several different spheres of interest. Till then, I’m going to keep my ears perched and my eyes wide open to the potentially awe-inspiring metamorphosis that the Blockchain is going to endure in the near future.
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