CryptoCurrencies, Distributed ledger & Blockchain – Is your vocabulary set to change?
Imagine…
It is 1903 and you have just stepped out of your horse-drawn carriage to attend a dinner party with a select group of people.
There, beneath the twinkling crystal chandeliers, while eating a sumptuous multi-course meal off delicate bone china, a guest starts rambling on about some brothers in North Carolina. ‘They have this contraption with wings that they are trying to get it to fly.’ In a world where roads are for horse-drawn carriages and the sky is ‘for the birds’ (and the occasional kite) the idea that people may one day be flying above in metal containers … even heading for the moon! … seems so preposterous.
Fast forward a century. Airports, hubs, flight paths, Concord, black box, jumbo jets, rockets, shuttles. These words have now transformed our vocabulary around travel. Behind each is a process and more than one commercial enterprise. Oh, how our lives have changed! Many of us regularly trust ourselves to this technology, without fully understanding the physics behind it. It is now feasible, and common, to travel from New York to Tokyo and back within a week. Who’d have thunk it?
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The same feelings of ‘Can it be so?’ ‘Is it even possible?’ were going through my head when I left the Bitcoin Expo 2014 in Toronto. My head is still buzzing with information. I am wrapping my brain around everything from technology to process to block chain to wallets to identity and Know Your Customer (KYC) to regulations and technology.
As a credit to the vision of Anthony Di Iorio, Executive Director of Bitcoin Alliance of Canada, this completely volunteer run event offered something for everyone. ‘Introduction to Bitcoin’ presentations were offered alongside panel discussions on Cybersecurity and Regulation. Healthy debates on the Future of Bitcoin supported a follow-on discussion on Entrepreneurship in this new milieu. There were discussions on Tree Chains and Voting Pools. I was particularly interested in references to education, un-banked, remittances and payments, and gravitated to presentations discussing those topics.
The Monetas presentation by Johann Gevers which discussed the World’s Universal Transaction Platform was a highlight. Monetas has worked with the Swiss authorities to create an administration framework that will support the creation of a Crypto-Valley in Switzerland – a physical location that could support like-minded crypto-currency start-ups and entrepreneurs.
I was impressed by the cross-section of the global population that appeared on stage and in the audience – young and old, male and female, of all colours and creeds.
Vitalik Buterin, is a name I will be watching with interest. He is the brains behind Ethereum
Ethereum logo
which will be launching soon – incidentally, one of the first co-residents of Crypto-Valley! More on Ethereum in future posts.
One thing I know for certain – my vocabulary is poised to change. Whether this Bitcoin bi-plane takes off and flies, whether it spawns ideas in a parallel space that encourage us to break the sound barrier or take man to the moon – life will never be the same.
The genie is out of the bottle. Bright minds are already taking the technology and concepts that underpin Bitcoin and expanding it to other fields and constructs beyond currency, payments and finance.
A little far-fetched? Do you recall the first time you saw someone take a photo with their phone? Or someone talking to themselves as they walked down the street? And how long after that could you not imagine leaving home without your smart phone or your blue tooth?
Whether you are a fan, foe or on the fence, I just ask you to be open to the idea that the concepts and technologies that were created with Bitcoin could one day change your vocabulary.
5/28 Addition: I guess I am not the only person who thinks this way! This was posted on the WSJ MoneyBeat blog:
In Bitcoin Debate, Larry Summers Sides with the History of Change
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Over to you:
– Is there a technology that you cannot live without today whose very idea seemed impossible and alien when you first heard about it?
– Are you an early adopter or cautious follower?
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Very interesting and very likely to take off at speed when us laggards are confident about the security aspects, however the early adopters will be willing to use it to find the flaws in the model and improve it as it develops.
Thank you for your comment. As with all things in life, it is wise to test these concepts and gradually grow comfortable with the technology. Future posts will talk about my first ‘wallet’ experience! Please remember to follow this blog.