The wave of bitcoin came when people needed the most. The need to believe in an alternative financial system after the scorching burn of the financial crisis. The 2008 financial crisis made people wary of the financial monetary system and policies. It led to break in trust on banks and central authority. With bad investments and decisions made by banks with people's hard earned money created a situation of financial despair in major parts of the world. It also led to fall of major banks like Lehman Brothers. In times like these, a person/group of person by the name of 'Satoshi Nakamoto' described a financial model or digital currency which hands people the power to make decisions for their own money. The whitepaper describes the model as 'Decentralized' Platform- without any one authority having too much control in their hands. All these words acted as band aid to the the wound gashed by our current financial model. In 2009, the same person released the first version of 'Bitcoin'- "a new electronic system that's fully peer to peer with no trusted third party"
The mechanism of bitcoin makes 'people their own banks'. It is controlled by a peer to peer network, meaning that there is not one central point of failure. All these 'peers' are equivalent to each other without having any hierarchy in their positions. It is decentralized, meaning that there is not a central entity like Banks which control the system. There is no need to trust or rely on any third party or intermediaries in order to process, approve or transfer any amount of transactions. It gives people the freedom to choose what to do with their own money (or in this case Bitcoins) instead of risking your money for any investment without asking you; as done by banks.
It empower you to transfer/receive bitcoins in a matter of minutes, no matter from what end of the world. It does not levy high fees on you whenever you make any kind of transaction. It does not charge you if the funds in your wallet are low nor does it gives you any interest for N number of bitcoins stored in your wallet. It does not discriminate onto whether you are a high ranking politician living in South Delhi of India or if you are a common man trying to make the ends meet. The bitcoin protocol only relies on honest transactions and capturing data in a centralized public ledger
Bitcoin was also not the first attempt at creating a digital currency. Many attempts have been made before to bring finance on a digitized platform. However, it was the first digital currency which had one of a kind technology backing, and is the first one to gain such popularity and adoption. Many attempts at creating an efficient digital currency failed primarily due to the fact that digital information is easy to replicate. This problem is known as 'Double Spending'- spending the already used token again. The protocol of bitcoin solved this issue by verifying each and every transaction only after which it is processed and added to the blockchain or centralized public ledger. Once these transactions are added, they cannot be modified, tampered or reversed. The blockchain backed bitcoin gave it USP which was not offered by any of these previously made digital currencies.
With marveling the fact that bitcoin is indeed one of a kind, it still is just the tip of the iceberg. The underlying disruptive blockchain technology is a real game changer. The said 'change' does not restrict to just financial world, rather it has the capacity to bring radical changes in social, political spheres too. The applications of blockchain are limitless and people are just beginning to realize this. These applications are already being tested in fields of real estate, banking, cross border remittance industry, Intellectual property rights- even as we speak (or read) right now.
The world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies is like an unexplored valley. The future will be based on this technology. We have just joined this wagon and there is so much more to explore.
Our posts will be entirely based on topics related to bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain. These may include the insights, what the technology is about, the facts, the applications, its history as well as the possibilities of its future. Feel free to comment, ask or share below and lets join hands in spreading and sharing of the crypto world. Thank you.jpg)
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