Breaking Digital Gridlock, + Website

CHAPTER 6Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

For the last two and half years, financial journalism has been dominated by the promise of the blockchain. The hype on this technology has been enormous, with predictions anywhere from facilitating world peace to curing cancer. The fact of the matter is that blockchain will not cure cancer or facilitate world peace, but it does have the propensity to be a game-changing technology for financial institutions, as evidenced by the heavy investments by large banks, insurance companies, and the medical industry. Blockchain was one of the most talked about financial topics of 2016 and continues to be a high interest concept into 2017. In order to really understand blockchain, you've got to start at the beginning, and since its beginnings are rooted in Bitcoin, I thought I would take a moment and do a brief history on the humble beginnings of Bitcoin. So let's hop in the way-back machine together and take a trip back to 2007.

Bitcoin: A Brief History

In 2007, Satoshi Nakamoto started work on what was called the Bitcoin Plan. (By the way, this is not his real name—in fact we're not even sure this pseudonym is even just one person. There are many who believe it refers to several persons but that isn't important to the story.) Two years later, January 12, 2009, the first Bitcoin transaction happened. It happens between Satoshi and some cryptology guy named Hal. Who Hal is doesn't really matter all that much—all you really need to know is that the ...