Bitcoin was first introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto when he published a paper about it in 2008. The paper gained a lot of attention as he managed to solve the double spending problem which researchers were attempting to solve for over a decade. Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the concept of a distributed ledger called blockchain to do so. The conceptual bitcoin was made a reality within one year.
Bitcoin was designed to be a digital currency that can be used for making transactions in place of fiat currency. However, bitcoin and the technology behind it has grown bigger than itself. Blockchain technology has outgrown bitcoin and now we have bitcoin companies that are trying to find different uses of bitcoin technology.
Attempts to use the blockchain technology for other applications has given rise to the terms Bitcoin 2.0 and Bitcoin 3.0. The developers and bitcoin companies have made some promising improvements, repurposing the blockchain technology for other applications. The use of blockchain technology now extends to not only bitcoin but for various other fintech applications. We all know about the banking consortium which has collaborated with a New York-based fintech solutions firm, R3CEV to develop private blockchain technology for the banking sector. The consortium consisting of over 40 banks is still growing and they intend to use the blockchain technology for transferring funds across branches in a faster and cheaper way compared to the current SWIFT network .
Various international stock exchanges like NASDAQ and Australian Securities Exchange are adopting blockchain technology for trade settlement and other securities related applications. Not to mention the demand for blockchain technology in data management, rights management, records keeping, internet of things and other industries.
There is a phenomenal increase in the use of blockchain technology, especially bitcoin blockchain itself for various applications, but at what cost? No one […]
