Bitcoin, a web-based “cryptocurrency” used to move money around quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority, is an increasingly popular alternative. —file photo: Reuters
ast year, in a report, the Reserve Bank of India acknowledged the transformation the technology can bring to various financial market transactions. Bitcoin, a web-based “cryptocurrency” used to move money around quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority, is one such increasingly popular alternative. Block chain (increasingly now referred to as blockchain), the underlying technology, is a distributed — across a network of computers — ledger secured cryptographically, which can be used to record any transaction (including an exchange of value).
In an interview with Sanjay Vijayakumar , Brock Pierce, managing partner at Blockchain Capital (a venture capital firm that invests in blockchain-enabled technology companies), and chairman, Bitcoin Foundation, which advocates bitcoin and its development, speaks about the currency and its use-cases in a market like India.
Bitcoin has gone through turbulent times…
Most people are judging the success of bitcoin based on the price, which is actually one of the least significant data points; it is very easy to look at the price and track that as primary barometer of sentiment. You need to go deeper and look into the fundamentals: is the transaction volume going up or down? Bitcoin volumes are going up month over month.
Bitcoin had bad press recently, with a famous developer (Mike Hearn) saying it is a failed experiment, which I think is absurd. He is saying that because of scalability issues. Facebook too went up from zero to a billion users. There are challenges, but they are good. So the issue is not can it be scaled; it is about how to move forward.
What are the use-cases of Blockchain beyond Bitcoin?
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