{"id":165,"date":"2014-07-24T09:34:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T09:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.holytransaction.com\/think-internets-disruptive-hold-for-blockchain\/"},"modified":"2022-12-27T00:27:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T22:27:52","slug":"think-internets-disruptive-hold-for-blockchain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holytransaction.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/think-internets-disruptive-hold-for-blockchain.html","title":{"rendered":"Think the Internet\u2019s disruptive? Hold tight for blockchain!"},"content":{"rendered":"
Wonder what all the fuss is about Bitcoin? A growing number of technology watchers are becoming increasingly excited about the peer-to-peer system on which the digital currency is built.<\/b><\/i><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
(Diginomica<\/a>) The blockchain, this is the distributed, encrypted record that Bitcoin<\/a> uses to record every transaction. An article in the Telegraph last week by Matthew Sparkes explained how the blockchain works<\/a>:<\/div>\n
The idea is that each and every transaction is broadcast by the person initiating it. Rather than telling the bank we want to spend [$5], we tell the world. That transaction is bundled up with thousands of others and cryptographically bound into a \u2018block\u2019 by \u2018miners\u2019 \u2026<\/div>\n
To quote the wiki dictionary maintained by \u2018the Bitcoin community\u2019 \u2014 perhaps the nearest you can get to an official explanation \u2014 \u2018mining is intentionally designed to be resource-intensive and difficult so that the number of blocks found each day by miners remains steady \u2026 The primary purpose of mining is to allow Bitcoin nodes to reach a secure, tamper-resistant consensus.\u2019<\/div>\n
\n

This matters because, as Sparkes sets out under his provocative headline of The coming digital anarchy<\/a>,
\nthis 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The fifth protocol<\/b><\/div>\n
To better understand the impact on business, it\u2019s worth going back to a longform blog post from April by Angellist CEO and co-founder Naval Ravikant, in which he states that cryptocurrencies will create a fifth protocol layer powering the next generation of the Internet<\/a>:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The Four Layers of the Internet Protocol Suite are constantly communicating. The Link Layer puts packets on a wire. The Internet Layer routes them across networks. The Transport Layer persists communication across a given conversation. And the Application Layer delivers entire documents and applications.<\/div>\n
This chatty, anonymous network treats resources as \u2018too cheap to meter.\u2019 It\u2019s a giant grid that transfers data but doesn\u2019t transfer value. DDoS attacks, email spam, and flooded VPNs<\/a> result. Names and identities are controlled by overlords \u2014 ICANN, DNS Servers, Facebook, Twitter, and Certificate \u2018Authorities\u2019.<\/div>\n
Where\u2019s the protocol layer for exchanging value, not just data?
\nWhere\u2019s the distributed, anonymous, permission-less system for chatty machines to allocate their scarce resources? Where is the \u2018virtual money\u2019 to create this \u2018virtual economy?\u2019 \u2026<\/div>\n
Cryptocurrencies are an emergent property of the Internet \u2014 almost a fifth protocol in the Internet suite. If [Bitcoin creator] Satoshi Nakomoto did not exist, it would still be necessary to invent them.
\nSomeday, 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.<\/div>\n
\n

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\u2019s not really a protocol, its impact is potentially as huge as any of these other building blocks of the Internet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Effectively, Ravikant is arguing the blockchain is how the Internet of Things will exchange value \u2014 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"blockchainAutonomous things<\/h4>\n
\n

Now back to Sparkes, who recounts a scenario imagined by Mike Hearn, an ex-Googler who now works on Bitcoin:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Jen wants a taxi. She tells her smartphone where she\u2019s <\/em>heading and it immediately starts gathering bids from nearby taxis and <\/em>ranking them based on price and user reviews. This system on which <\/em>requests and offers bounce around is called TradeNet, and it would be <\/em>based on blockchain technology.<\/em><\/div>\n
The strange thing about these vehicles is not that nobody drives <\/em>them, as self-driving cars will have become commonplace decades before, <\/em>but that nobody even owns them. They are what Hearn calls \u2018autonomous <\/em>agents\u2019, independent machines which earn their own money through fares, <\/em>pays for their own fuel and repair and operates utterly without outside <\/em>control.<\/em><\/div>\n
\n

Far-fetched it may be, but this is the kind of scenario that is getting venture investors excited about blockchain right now \u2014 and you can understand why.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Open your free digital wallet here<\/a> to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wonder what all the fuss is about Bitcoin? A growing number of technology watchers are becoming increasingly excited about the peer-to-peer system on which the digital currency is built. (Diginomica) The blockchain, this is the distributed, encrypted record that Bitcoin uses to record every transaction. An article in the Telegraph last week by Matthew Sparkes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,101,191,299],"tags":[793,871,975],"yoast_head":"\nThink the Internet\u2019s disruptive? 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