By Antony Mutunga
In the early years when the Internet was first deployed, a lot of people, especially the media, expected it to fail. However, it has now become one of the most influential things in human lives, from how we socialize in the society, how we purchase products to helping mobilize people to stand up against oppression for example, in the Arab spring. It has democratized access to information enabling people all over the world to have access to the widely available data.
The Internet is considered one of the technologies that only come once in a decade. Its establishment redefined innovation and allowed other new technologies to be created out of it. The Internet, for example, enabled the establishment of e-mail, which is its most widely used application. Even though it has been very successful over the years, the norm of the world that nothing ever lasts forever still stands. In this case, once in a while technology will always disrupt technology.
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The same way the Internet was considered as a ‘once in a decade technology’, another similar technology has emerged as well to be the next game changer in the world, the blockchain technology. The technology was first conceptualized by a person, or persons using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 as the core component behind the first digital currency, bitcoin. The blockchain technology is an open source decentralized or distributed database/ledger that records information of every transaction in a block, which is linked to other blocks to form a chain. The technology stores data that ranges from managing cryptographic contracts, decentralized email to transferring value.
The blockchain technology ensures that the data recorded remains unaltered therefore eliminating the need for a third party, intermediary, to verify, to the concerned parties, that all the information required for the transaction are in order. The blockchain is much like the Internet, especially during the early days, with both not being owned by any single institution or government. The blockchain technology also started off on a rough patch, the same way the Internet did back in 1996, with its first app, the bitcoin, being misunderstood and taking a while before it caught on.
However, with time the bitcoin has grown to become popular around the world recently hitting the $4,000 mark. The bitcoin has driven the adoption of its underlying blockchain, making it the ‘killer app’ for the blockchain technology. This is similar to the e-mail, which was the ‘killer app’ for internet in its early days driving its adoption on a wide scale and strengthening its network. The bitcoin blockchain, although not the only blockchain in the world, has a strong technical community and code review process that makes it the best bet in terms of security and reliability.
Apart from the email, another application that really helped the integration of the Internet was the establishment of the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989. Before the introduction of the WWW, the Internet was only used by a selected few because its interface was difficult for the common user. However, the WWW was able to transform the interface making it more accessible to the average user.
The blockchain technology is currently also in a state that the average person would find difficult to comprehend but this is all about to change. A company named Blockstack is creating an internet browser using the blockchain technology which will make it easier for the common user to easily access. This will see the blockchain technology become widely available, making it more attractive to the users thus causing its adoption to explode.
Similarly, to the Internet, the blockchain technology has also helped certain organizations to come up with new applications. For example, the blockchain technology is being used to track diamonds by a startup called Everledger to ensure that counterfeit rocks are found and distinguished from the real ones. The technology has assisted to create a digital record to trail one’s products as well as cut out the intermediaries/middlemen in turn reducing the expenses.
Brian Behlendorf, director of hyperledger- a relatively new non-profit group that focuses on blockchain- says, “In a world where we trust our institutions less and less, having technologies that help us conduct business and get things done without needing to depend on central third parties/middlemen seems ever more important.”
Despite the many characteristics to the Internet, some experts have also dubbed the blockchain the driving technology behind the new generation internet which is being referred to as the decentralized web/Web 3.0. For example, Don and Alex Tapscott, authors of the blockchain revolution say that the first generation of the digital revolution brought about the internet of information while the second generation, powered by the blockchain technology, is bringing about the internet of value. This is because the Internet only allowed one to share information in the form of content however, the blockchain technology goes a step further to allow one to share and store anything of value for example, money, goods or property.
The structure behind the two technologies is also a bit different as for the Internet applications depend on capturing data from users and owning it in order to become more valuable. An example of these applications include the likes of Google, Facebook and LinkedIn. On the other hand, the blockchain technology relies on the sharing of information whereby the user controls their own data thus revealing it only when it is required.
The potential of blockchain technology is vast; it has just started scratching the surface as it still has a long way to go. However, the achievements the technology has been able to make so far show it has the potential to become the next big thing. Apart from its growing popularity in the financial sector, it has also caught the eye of several large corporations from different industries that are looking at the different ways it can be put into practice. In the coming years, the blockchain technology is expected to finally give back to users the control of their own data.
