Blockchain Technology in the age of Cryptic Capitalism and Chaotic Markets
A Critical Review by Gokul Baby Alex on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Blockchain Technology is born in an age of burgeoning complexity! a complex age with convoluted social networks and cognitive clutter. What would be the role played by Blockchain Technology in this state of affairs?
Blockchain is the manifestation of a collection of protocols and principles emerging from the philosophy and praxis of decentralised ideologies which has deep perspectives on cash, currencies, computing, and culture. When we look at the evolution of Blockchain Technology in a decade, it has created ripples and reverberations around the world of capital and commerce significantly.
Blockchain Technology has emerged as a new specter born in an age marred by confusions, competitions, conjectures, and chaos circulating around capitalism. The emergence of Blockchain Technology into the public sphere was through the Bitcoin Protocol white paper published by Satoshi Nakamoto in 31st October 2008. Strikingly, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on 15th September 2008. It was the largest in history with $639 billion in assets and $619 billion in debt.
Turmoils and turbulences were seen across the financial capitals around the world, followed by fathomless fissures and reverberant ripples across big banks, shaky stock exchanges, shivering nation states, ineffectual investors and many other myriads of manifestations.
Is Blockchain Technology sudden serendipity of a crazy cryptographer inspired by the catastrophic events in the financial markets?
It is difficult to think so.
From 2009 to 2013, Blockchain Technology was primarily identified with Bitcoin Protocol, hovering around the cryptic contours of the dark net and deep web for a long long time, as the enabler of Bitcoin cryptocurrency based payments. Even before the emergence in Bitcoin protocol and Bitcoin cryptocurrency, the essential building blocks of Blockchain Technology were envisioned by a community of cryptographers for a long time. The idea of digital cash powered by decentralization, peer to peer networks, timestamping and public key cryptography was a dream for the cult of cypherpunks for many decades. Many of them came so close by — E-Cash by David Chaum, E-Gold by Douglas Jackson, Hash Cash by Adam Back, B-Money by Wei Dai, etc.
What is unique in Bitcoin that made it mainstream that was lacking in these pioneering predecessor implementations by illustrious inventors?
Time may unfold the tales!
It is considered that Bitcoin white paper and the Bitcoin protocol implementation was quite mature in comparison with the preceding pioneering efforts. It was a crystal clear implementation of partial synchronous fault tolerant machines based distributed consensus algorithm together with time tested cryptographic standards. Bitcoin Protocol was a confluence of pioneering researches in cryptography and distributed computing along with the vision and passion of the cypherpunk community.
Bitcoin Protocol and Bitcoin Cryptocurrency which was invented to eliminate the role of central banks, conglomerates and all sort of trusted third parties and intermediaries in the circuits of cash, currencies, and computing. However, we are witnessing a seismic shift and directional drift from this perspective just in a decade.
It is not at all surprising.
If we traceroute the history of the internet, we can see that how the promises of a world wide web through the universal and ubiquitous HTTP protocol and TCP/IP architecture drifted to the current paradigms of asymtertic, opaque and intricate electronic business and electronic commerce architectures.
Now let us take the case of Blockchain Technology.
Blockchain Technology can be developed as a panacea of chaos in the markets and complexities in communication networks, cryptic tendencies in the capital circuits. Is it progressing in this direction?
Unfortunately not. It is essentially due to the convoluted nature of capital, currencies, cash, and computing. Decentralising cash, currencies, capital, and culture requires concerted efforts civil and political society beyond the borders. Instead of circumventing the aforementioned convolutions, cryptocurrencies, crypto economics, and decentralised finance are getting absorbed in the creation of abstract structures around Blockchain Technology.
In this same time, Blockchain Technology is becoming a special purpose vehicle for data monetisation.
Yes, Blockchain Technology is a boon to the banes of Big Data landscape. Information Technology industry was spiraling cluelessly into the clutches and clutter of big data for a decade. Big Data has been a creative conjecture to that lured data scientists and data analysts into the endless volume, variety, vivacity of datasets enmeshed with infinite dimensions of noises and biases.
How is Blockchain connected to Big Data in our times?
Big Data has been a strong and successful narrative in the world of internet and electronic business. We saw the emergence of internet companies monetising data generated by social networks, search engines, electronic commerce, electronic banking, digital retail, digital finance, etc. In recent times, there has been public furore and governmental scrutiny in the data collection, data consumption, data circulation, and data monetisation methods, tools and techniques employed by these Big Data giants.
Yet, monetising data is an exciting economic imperative of our times.
Data monetisation has become essential for the international finance and global trade as a large volume and variety of finance capital and digitised commodities are circulating through the internet. When capital and commodities are circulating through the internet, a lot of data and metadata gets generated. This data — metadata collective is highly insightful for designing optimised trade networks and supply chain mechanisms.
Data monetisation cannot happen in isolation. It requires a Data circulation network around the data commoditisation algorithms and architectures. This is where Blockchain Technology becomes a powerful construct for carrying the currents of data monetisation. Data monetisation can happen only when data commoditisation process takes place seamlessly. Cryptography is a natural weapon for data commoditisation as it provides fault-tolerant protocols for consuming and circulating data-driven assets and collaterals. P2P networks add further versatility to the data monetisation process as it accentuates the circulation of commoditised data across commercial networks.
Thus Blockchain Technology without the passion and perspective for simplifying the convoluted constructs around cash, currencies, capital, computing, and culture is just a concocted constellation of data monetisation architectures and algorithms powered by countless conjugations of cryptography and computational structures.
