Commercializing Blockchain

8First Use Cases: Cryptocurrency, ICOs, and Tokenization

This chapter will look at the start of the Blockchain world as we currently see it – starting with the synonymous white paper from Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Nobody knows who he/she/they are…and to be honest, I do not care.

The important understanding in this chapter is that this paper started Blockchain adoption and all which has happened since the paper was written. In my view, this is where Blockchain has been initially developed, tested, and destroyed. Most people still think that ‘Bitcoin’ is Blockchain and vice versa – Bitcoin is a use case of Blockchain technology not the other way around.

After looking at the quick history of Bitcoin, I will move onto the very interesting world of Cryptocurrency, ICO's, and Tokenization – all of these areas which we hear about every day in the news, and areas which are changing the Blockchain world at speed.

This chapter is in no way a guide to any of these areas – there are literally hundreds of books on these subjects. My slant on this is to take you through the story so far, and why I believe this has influenced greatly where we are with Blockchain technology in general and with Enterprise Blockchain.

History of Bitcoin

The history of Bitcoin and the Satoshi Nakamoto paper is fundamental to Blockchain technology. There are many people who tell me that Blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) in its wider context has been around since the beginning of time. That ...