I started to explore this “brave new world” of crypto in about 2017 and I plunged in. I did the MIT online course with Gary Gensler [now the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)] and am currently doing post grad studies at RMIT.
As soon as family, friends or clients hear I am working in the Blockchain space – given most have heard of bitcoin “silk road”, sex trafficking and other nefarious events, they ask “why?”
Firstly Fintech or the crypto market is not the main focus for us – don’t get me wrong AR SOAR: Business Services work with start ups (Musicians and NFTs) and we are heavily involved in the discussion and developments regarding the regulation of Blockchain but it is not the primary focus.
The reason I got involved and still find fascinating is the potential or promise that Blockchain holds out for a fairer, more democratic world: a world that offers greater protection of Human Rights, particularly for refugees and asylum seekers.
What is Blockchain?
Although I have written about it in the past, here is a brief overview: Blockchain technology was first introduced as the underlying structure and mechanism of Bitcoin, a digital cryptocurrency released in 2009 as an open-source system by a person or group of people nicknamed Satoshi Nakamoto.
While the increase in computing power, affordability and global expansion of internet access have set foundations for the growth of cryptocurrencies, their breakout into the public sphere also has to be understood in the context of a strong public reaction to the pitfalls of centralised systems and institutions after the 2008 financial crisis (Ito,Narula, and Ali 2017). This crisis, which some economists consider one of the worst since the Great Depression, shook people’s trust in traditional financial intermediaries
(Uslaner 2010).
Bitcoin offered a technological response: for the first time ever, people would be able to carry out large monetary transactions without the need to trust or rely on intermediaries. Built on the principles of an interconnected and interdependent chain of blocks – with each block being a record of a cryptographically signed transaction, hence the term ‘blockchain’ – the trust would shift away from third parties and legacy institutions towards code and a community-based, open-source, peer-to-peer system of transparency and accountability.
Stay with me – to put it simply the blockchain is a distributed digital ledger or accounting book.
Instead of relying on a bank or a lawyer to attest that money was exchanged or that a contract was made, each transaction between members, or nodes, of the blockchain is securely reflected through strong cryptography as an extra block in a database, of which all full nodes have a copy. Due to how the blockchain works and is designed, no single node can defraud or tamper with its content. To ensure that everyone is using the same version of the blockchain and that no conflicting versions emerge, the design
incorporates a system of collective consensus and verification through mining, which is
a way to establish proof of the work
Once you get that you see the power of the underlying technology. Cause it doesn’t have to be about money – it can be about anything!
I have never been a big fan of centralized control like facebook – I use it for work, but I have never like it – and one of the things I dislike is how they take data. So another reason for my interest in distributed ledger technologies such as the blockchain needs to be understood in contrast with the high concentration of user interactions and data at the internet’s application layer, such as on search engines, social networks and content platforms.
As Goodwin notes “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And
Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate”
The promise of protecting our data is a powerful thought that blockchain also holds out.
(End of part one)
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