Blockchain — a Fascinating Story of a Thing of Pure Sci-Fi Turned Real
There were very few blank stares to be seen when the news of Bitcoin price crash in February shook the world, and this wasn’t because we are a generation of tech geniuses or investment bankers. It was because Bitcoin, and the idea of cryptocurrency, has gained such undeniable pop culture status that one would figuratively have to live under a rock to not have at least heard of the digital behemoth that has spread panic across boardrooms of banking giants.
Genesis
Before we talk about the so-called father of blockchain — it wouldn’t hurt to know about the grandfathers of blockchain, namely, Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta. These two notable figures in the science of cryptography and distributed computing, were the first ones to mention “block chain”, way back in 1991, as a digital hierarchy system that utilized digital time-stamps for making transactions. How this theory would make a legend out of a certain Satoshi Nakamoto seventeen years later was probably something they did not see coming.
First generation blockchain
Pretty much all you currently know about blockchain — cryptocurrency and finance. Bitcoin, once synonymous with cryptocurrency, wo over the world with its game changing way of enabling transactions using an immutable, transparent public digital ledger. Digital tokens such as Bitcoin derive its value from guaranteed scarcity and new use cases made possible by its programmable nature. It became a favorite mode of payment because of the super secure system it worked on, which completely nullified the chances of fraudulent transactions, double spending, etc.
Second generation blockchain
These are called second generation because they had taken the idea of recording on a blockchain and expanded it to incorporate programming languages. It had also popularized the use of smart contracts which allow for customizable transactions, generate invoices that pay themselves every time a transaction is recorded, and allow for the selling of shares of blockchain based companies in the form of digital assets instead of equity. Ethereum defines this generation, with its work to extend the capacity of the technology from primarily being a database supporting Bitcoin to becoming more of a general platform for running decentralized applications and smart contracts.
Third generation blockchain
The ideas of scalability, interoperability (side chains), treasury systems and on-chain governance are crucial to understanding the core functionality of the third generation. The third generation blockchains have been modified to service a massive number of users and self govern, and its better capabilities enable the technology to find implementations in new markets. Some of the advantages that have already been derived are lowered transactional costs, faster verification of transactions, greater mobile compatibility, and developer friendliness.
California based software development company HashCash is one of the first to take full advantage of this increased malleability of blockchain and is in collaboration with players across industries to take this digital innovation into online gaming, defense, entertainment, medical research, diamond mining, solving refugee crisis — areas one would never have associated with blockchain.
The journey of blockchain is an ongoing one, and just like generations 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, the world should be prepared for versions 4.0, 5.0, so on and so forth. In fact, the advent of the next generation may already be round the bend with quantum physics on its way to becoming a staple of this technology, and further drive this leg of technological revolution well into the lifetimes of our grandkids.
