Understanding the Blockchain Beyond Just Currency
As someone who knows a great deal about personal finance, you’re familiar with fiat currency and financial instruments and asset classes based on that monetary model. But there is a new currency that has been growing in momentum since 2009. This is digital currency, currency based on encryption techniques to regulate currency units and verify the transfer of funds from one party to another.
This digital currency, called cryptocurrency (because it’s encrypted) is less well known because it is a decentralized currency; that is, it is independent of the de facto currency model–the standard national currency managed by a Central Bank.
Today, there are over 700 different types of cryptocurrencies, but the original currency, the Bitcoin, which is now still flourishing, created the general ledger that made it possible to transfer money between people without a middleman.
Decentralization is highly desirable state of affairs because it serves as an outlet for the circulation of personal wealth. Without a middleman, this wealth can grow without restriction, and it is free from the threat of confiscation.
The name of this general ledger that make decentralization possible is known as blockchain technology.
Understanding Blockchain Technology
In many ways, the blockchain is the opposite of the Central Bank. Instead of a Central Bank managed by bankers and working within a government, the blockchain is decentralized and consists of a worldwide network of computers. These computers, referred to as “nodes,” jointly manage the information database that records cryptocurrency transactions. In short, a particular type of cryptocurrency is managed by a network rather than a Central Bank.
In essence, the blockchain works as a distributed, incorruptible digital ledger, recording transactions across many nodes. As a result, a record cannot be altered in a retroactive fashion because altering one record would alter all the other subsequent blocks.
Bitcoin, How Blockchain Became Famous
Since there are many types of cryptocurrencies, let’s simplify things by talking about a single one, the Bitcoin. This was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, which is the name of the unknown person or group who designed Bitcoin and the blockchain that is part of its implementation.
How the XYO Network Revolutionized the Blockchain
Before the advent of the XYO Network, the blockchain could only function online. Now XYO has developed a location protocol to build a decentralized location network. They have created an ecosystem of over a million location-verifying beacons across the world to make it possible to keep track of anything, from Smart Contracts to luggage in transition through various airports.
What’s Next for Blockchain?
So what is next for blockchain? No one really knows for sure actually. That’s what makes it so neat! One thing is for sure, the company that can put blockchain to effective use could very-well be the next big investment opportunity!
