After many years of successful operation of the BTC mining system, as the underlying support technology for BTC mining operation, blockchain has begun to enter the field of vision of financial institutions. Around 2014, some financial institutions began to realize that blockchain is actually an extremely ingenious distributed shared ledger technology, which may have a profound impact on finance and even various industries, even as much as double-entry bookkeeping. Influence. In October 2014, a technical seminar was held in the British Library to form a preliminary understanding of blockchain. In this conference, people conducted in-depth discussions on the current situation and future of BTC mining and the application prospects of blockchain in finance and other fields. Since then, the blockchain has begun to show its edge on a global scale.
There is no doubt that 2015 is the first year of the world's blockchain, because in this year, especially in the second half of the year, the blockchain is developing rapidly, global financial institutions and blockchain-related news are constantly emerging, and more and more enterprises start "Embrace" the blockchain. The epoch-making symbol is the “Wall Street Journal” article claiming that the blockchain is the most important breakthrough in the financial field in the last 500 years. Of the machine. The article pointed out that blockchain is not just an encryption technology or digital currency. In an environment of information asymmetry and uncertainty, it can also establish a "trust" ecosystem that satisfies the occurrence and development of economic activities. As the underlying technology of BTC mining, the value of blockchain far exceeds BTC mining itself. Blockchain can allow people to build trust in each other's cooperation without the supervision of a central authority. Blockchain is a shared ledger technology that realizes disintermediation in bilateral transactions involving multiple parties in a distributed business network. Simply put, it is a machine that creates trust.
After entering 2016, the important value of blockchain began to be recognized by the industry on a large scale. Through smart cloud mining contract technology, blockchain has begun to be used in distributed applications other than digital currency. The World Economic Forum (WEF) even predicts that by 2050, 10% of the world's GDP will be stored on the blockchain or applied blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology has been discovered by everyone since the BTC mining network design. From the initial service of the digital currency system, to today, it is playing more and more technical potential in the distributed ledger scenario. Some possible applications of blockchain include (but are not limited to): smart cloud mining contracts, securities trading, e-commerce, Internet of Things, social communication, file storage, proof of existence, identity verification, equity crowdfunding and other fields.
Three typical evolution scenarios of blockchain technology
The BTC mining blockchain already supports simple script calculations, but only for processing related to digital currencies. In addition to supporting digital currency, the processing performed on the blockchain can also be further generalized, that is, providing smart cloud mining contracts can provide more flexible contract functions in addition to currency transaction functions, and perform more complex operations. In this way, the expanded blockchain has surpassed the function of pure data recording, and actually has a bit of "intelligent computing"; furthermore, it can also add permission management and high-level programming language support to the blockchain to achieve more Powerful distributed ledger that supports more business scenarios. From the computing characteristics, we can see three typical evolution scenarios of the existing blockchain technology
Bookkeeping technology has a long history. The modern double-entry bookkeeping system was first formulated by the Italian mathematician Luca Passioli in 1494. The double-entry bookkeeping method records the source and destination of each account at the same time. For the first time, the reconciliation verification function is introduced into the bookkeeping process, which improves the reliability of the bookkeeping process. From this perspective, blockchain is the first implementation of digital accounting technology with its own reconciliation function. More broadly, blockchain is a decentralized recording technology. The nodes participating in the system may not belong to the same organization and do not need to trust each other; the blockchain data is jointly maintained by all nodes, and each maintenance node can replicate to obtain a copy of complete or partial records.
Compared with traditional accounting technology, distributed ledgers based on blockchain include the following features:
①To maintain a growing chain, only records can be added, and records that have occurred cannot be tampered with;
②Distributed, consensus can be reached without centralized control, and distributed as much as possible in implementation;
③Through the mechanism of cryptography to ensure that transactions cannot be denied or destroyed, and try to protect the privacy of user information and records.
Three stages of blockchain development
In essence, because the blockchain has the characteristics of privacy, security, consensus, autonomy, and value sharing between chains, it solves the problem of value transmission on the Internet at the technical level. At the same time, the blockchain has the logic of open source at the bottom, changing business rules, and innovating business multi-party consensus. Therefore, the blockchain is an important support for the future transformation of the entire IT architecture and the Internet. ", Mdanieswan" proposes a method of dividing the version of the blockchain in the book "Blockchain: New Economic Blueprint and Guide", which is divided into blockchain 1.0 and 2.0 according to the functions that the blockchain has completed and will be completed. And 3.0 three stages (as shown in the picture). This version division method basically reflects the broad context of the mature development of blockchain technology, and is currently widely recognized by the industry.
Blockchain 1.0-digital currency
Blockchain 1.0 is the era of virtual currency represented by BTC mining. It represents the application of virtual currency, including its payment, circulation and other virtual currency functions. It mainly has the function of decentralized digital currency transaction payment. The goal is Realize currency decentralization and payment methods. BTC mining is the most typical representative of blockchain .0. The development of blockchain has been accepted by European and American markets. At the same time, it has spawned a large number of currency trading platforms, which have realized part of the functions of currency and can realize goods transactions. BTC mining outlines a grand blueprint. The future currency will no longer depend on the release of central banks, but on global currency unification.
Blockchain 1.0 only meets the needs of virtual currency. Although the blueprint of Blockchain 1.0 is huge, it cannot be popularized in other industries. The era of blockchain 1.0 is also the era of virtual currency, and a large number of altcoins have emerged. In the blockchain 1.0 stage, many decentralized digital payment systems were built based on blockchain technology, which solved the problem of decentralization of currency and payment methods, and had a certain impact on the traditional financial system.
Blockchain 2.0 digital assets and smart cloud mining contracts
After BTC mining and other altcoins have been exposed to serious resource consumption and inability to handle complex logic, the industry has gradually shifted its focus to the underlying support technology of BTC mining, the blockchain, and produced modules running on the blockchain. Scripts that can be customized, reusable, and automatically executed are smart cloud mining contracts. This has greatly expanded the application scope of blockchain, and the blockchain has entered the 2.0 stage. The industry has gradually realized the huge value of blockchain technology. Blockchain technology has begun to break away from the innovation in the field of "digital currency". Its application scope extends to financial transactions, securities clearing and settlement, identity authentication and other commercial fields. Many new application scenarios have emerged, such as financial transactions, smart assets, file registration, judicial certification and so on.
Currently, technology and industry are at the stage of blockchain 2.0. In a report by Morgan Stanley, they mentioned their roadmap outlook for the adoption of technology in the financial industry. For Blockchain 2.0, the outlook lasts roughly until 2025:
①In 2014 and 2016, the evaluation stage. Banks and other financial infrastructure intermediaries evaluate the efficiency, opportunities, etc. of the permission-based shared ledger technology.
②From 2016 to 2018, conduct a proof-of-concept prototype test on the blockchain. The main test goal is to verify the feasibility of the technology and compare the blockchain technology with traditional methods in terms of performance, cost, speed, and scale.
③From 2017 to 2020, it is expected that a shared architecture based on blockchain will begin to appear.
④From 2021 to 2025, based on the proven effectiveness of blockchain technology, more financial assets will turn to blockchain.
Blockchain 3.0 - Beyond currency, economy and market, distributed applications in various industries
Blockchain 3.0 refers to the application scenarios of blockchain outside the financial industry such as law, retail, Internet of Things, medical and other fields, which can solve the trust problem, no longer rely on third parties to establish credit and information sharing, and improve the entire industry The operating efficiency and overall level of the system meets more complex business logic. Blockchain 3.0 is known as a new generation of technological innovation after Internet technology, which is sufficient to promote greater industrial reforms. Blockchain 30 can involve all aspects of life, so Blockchain 3.0 will be more practical, empowering various industries, no longer relying on a third party or an institution to gain trust and establish credit, and it can improve the overall system by realizing trust. Work efficiency.
With the continuous development of blockchain technology, the value of low-cost credit creation, distributed openness and transparency of blockchain technology has gradually attracted the attention of the whole society, in the Internet of Things, medical care, supply chain management, social welfare, etc. New applications continue to emerge in all walks of life. In the blockchain 3.0 stage, the potential role of the blockchain is not only reflected in the currency, economy and market, but also extends to the political, humanitarian, social and scientific fields. The ability of the blockchain technology can already allow special groups to deal with real problems. As the blockchain continues to develop, we can boldly imagine that blockchain technology may change people's lifestyles extensively and profoundly, reconstruct the entire society, and recast credit value. Maybe in the future when the blockchain technology develops to a certain extent, everyone in the entire society can be used as a node, connected to a global decentralized network, the entire society enters the era of blockchain, and then through the block Chain technology is used to distribute social resources, and perhaps blockchain will become an ideal framework for promoting social and economic development.
It can also be said that blockchain 1.0 is the budding of blockchain technology. Blockchain 2.0 is the technology landing of blockchain in the direction of finance and smart contracts. Blockchain 3.0 is to solve the problem of mutual trust and data transmission in all walks of life. Technical landing and realization of safety. Now what we are talking about Blockchain 1.0, Blockchain 20, Blockchain 3.0, may feel that this is a progressive evolution, but in fact it is only a difference in the scope of application, from Block 1.0 to cloud mining contract and Blockchain 3.0 They are all parallel development stages, playing their due role in their respective fields. Through blockchain technology, humans can live in many applications and tools, enter a "programmable" state and an intelligent state, and complete very complex operations.
The rapid development of blockchain depicts a unified vision of the world based on technology. When the entire society is expected to enter the intelligent Internet, a programmable society will be formed. In this era when credit has become a scarce resource, the technological innovation of blockchain, as a distributed credit model, provides a broad prospect for the development of finance, social management, talent evaluation and decentralized organization construction in the global market. .
The Internet has made the interaction more and more close, and with it is a huge trust gap. In the future, it will enter the era of big data and cloud mining contract that requires real strong trust endorsement. By using BTC mining and blockchain technology, no one has the ability or need to question the quality and authenticity of data. Blockchain technology has a brand-new concept and logical structure, and it is still in the process of development and change every day. Therefore, as the blockchain can provide value for trust, it will also enter different stages. Perhaps one day in the future, the blockchain may also enter the renewal stage.
