Chainthon – The Bitcoin and Blockchain Hackathon in Athens, Greece
Athens, Greece is about to have its first Bitcoin and Blockchain Hackathon, aptly named the Chainthon, on October 17th. The hackathon is a direct response to growing support for Bitcoin as well as growing pressures on the local financial system. The Hellenic Bitcoin community explained their situation in a press release:
“This year, we are witnessing an economic crisis escalate into a humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands are fleeing the war in the Middle East in search of a better life, only to find different obstacles in Europe. Many of the countries they travel through are facing a severe economic crisis, making it difficult to transfer money or receive donations.”
The refugee issue facing much of Europe has reignited age-old tensions between ethnic groups that have been at odds for centuries. The growing amount of forcefully or willfully unbanked refugees and ex-pats is an immediate use case for Bitcoin technology. However, it is almost certainly the latter group of ex-pats, not refugees, that are currently taking advantage of Bitcoin. George Papageorgiou, the organizer of the event, laid out the main goal of the event:
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Imogen Heap Releases New Single Using Ethereum
In a recent event at Guardian live!, popular music artist Imogen Heap talked about the release of her new song, Tiny Human, on the Ethereum blockchain. By working with BitTunes, Ethereum Developers recently demonstrated smart contract functionality by purchasing the song using Ether. Imogen started with just a thought:“And I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if I could decide what I wanted to do with my music, who I wanted to have it for free, or not have it for free?”
She eventually found her way to the bleeding edge of technology and has now officially brought her music to the digital age with blockchain smart contracts.
Music Is Finally Entering the Digital Age
Since the days of Napster, LimeWire, and even iTunes, music has come a long way in the digital age. Before physical mediums for music storage and music playing were developed, the only way to purchase music was to buy a single listen in the form of (likely) an orchestra or choral concert. With physical medium such as vinyl, cassettes, CDs, and now MP3s, the business model changed to allow consumers to buy “unlimited” listens by having the music file. Newer services such as Spotify, Pandora, and 8Tracks have created a newer business model that returns to using the “listen” as the basic unit of measurement. Music ownership has progressed and regressed; however, the connection between artist and music buyer has only continually grown wider and wider. Imogen commented:
Blockchain Technology Allows for New Possibilities
After talking about blockchain technology with her friend Zoë, Imogen realized that technology had finally reached a point where users could get a download that is connected to artists in a financial way. Imogen described her realization:“I realized there is actually a way that you can connect a file with its payment attached into a digital wallet. And so when somebody listens to a track — the technology is very close to being there — it immediately recompenses me, and then I can split it off to my choreographer, to Zoë for thanking her, to whatever, it can immediately go into their bank accounts. Instead of having to wait two years, sometimes, even more, for money to come back to me, it can be instant.”
It turns out that technology can benefit the fans, who can receive provable special attention from their favorite artist, and the artists, who can receive payments sooner and with less middle men in between. Imogen Heap’s decision to use Ethereum and blockchain technology now that she is free of the shackles of contracts made by record labels tells us something about the future. This same move toward smart contracts will be emulated in other industries. Ethereum, and by extension Bitcoin and blockchain technology as a whole, will change the world.
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Bitcoin’s Monthly Recap of September 2015
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Infographic: What is MultiSig and why does it matter?
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Infographic: What is the Block Size debate, and will it lead to a hard fork?
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Infographic: 5 reasons you should be bullish on Bitcoin!
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Infographic: Do the capabilities of the Blockchain end with Bitcoin?
Do the capabilities of the Blockchain end with Bitcoin?
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HolyTransaction partners with RibbitRewards to further Blockchain-based rewards programs
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Think the Internet’s disruptive? Hold tight for blockchain!
This matters because, as Sparkes sets out under his provocative headline of The coming digital anarchy,
this is a system that can be applied not just to money but to any kind of transaction, from domain name registration to legal arbitration or public elections. In between those two extremes, it could completely overturn the way enterprises organize themselves and tout for business.
Where’s the distributed, anonymous, permission-less system for chatty machines to allocate their scarce resources? Where is the ‘virtual money’ to create this ‘virtual economy?’ …
Someday, they will be used by the machines in our network, on our desk, in our garage, and in our pocket to exchange value and achieve consensus at blinding speeds, anonymously, and at minimal cost.
What Ravikant is really describing here is not Bitcoin per se but the work of the blockchain, providing a trusted, shared transaction record that allows machines to own and exchange value without human intervention. Although in strict engineering terms it’s not really a protocol, its impact is potentially as huge as any of these other building blocks of the Internet.
Effectively, Ravikant is arguing the blockchain is how the Internet of Things will exchange value — not just monetary value, but also many of those other components of business transactions that we currently find much harder to quantify, such as trust and reputation.
Autonomous things
Now back to Sparkes, who recounts a scenario imagined by Mike Hearn, an ex-Googler who now works on Bitcoin:
Far-fetched it may be, but this is the kind of scenario that is getting venture investors excited about blockchain right now — and you can understand why.
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Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and the Blockchain
What is the Blockchain?
{
"txid": <a unique transaction identifier>
"inputs": <an array of inputs>
"outputs": <an array of outputs>
"tx_hex": <transaction content as a hexcode string>
"blockhash": <a unique block identifier this transaction belongs to>
"time": <the time this transaction's block was processed>
"confirmations": <number of blocks that confirmed this transaction>
}
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