Blockchain 2015 – A Technology Breakthrough

19.12.2015

   News titles in mass media announcing that somebody bought Bitcoin with $25 and sold for $500 and raised his fortune by dozens, or sometimes hundreds,  of times, play not the best role in the development of cryptocurrency. Certainly, such articles raise interest of readers; however they present Bitcoin as a speculative instrument instead of a real payment instrument on a level with other currencies. Despite such articles and news, the viewpoint of financial institutions towards Bitcoin and blockchain step by step changes to more positive though not so long ago the attitude was almost opposite.
We all see the tendency towards concentration of the blockchain industry. The expert of Deutsche Bank, Heike Mai, commented on this trend this week. As he said, the concept, which initially was ascribed to Bitcoin, was based on the assumption that it should be a payment network with no mediators and control (management); however, today the structure is overgrown with services of exchange and storage. In other words, the initial structure has been changed and carries on transformation.
As for the founder of Bitcoin, his exposure became quite a series of mythical captures of Satoshi Nakamoto under different names in different places worldwide. For example, this week his new appearance was unmasked in Australia. Satoshi Nakamoto appeared there on public under the name of the scientist Craig Steven Wright. For mass media this case represents one more news topic, for public – one more intriguing story.
With all this going on, events dedicated to blockchain and Bitcoin are carried on with the slogan: “Bitcoin is a currency unit, blockchain is an advanced economical instrument.”
Large banks got interested in blockchain system; today their attention is focused on this technology. First of all, it is proven, advanced and working technology; secondly, it is very flexible and allows creating particular distributional registers for circulation of various digital documents and currencies in these particular systems and independent algorithms.
Consortium R3 (association of banks on the platform of blockchain) is a brilliant proof of the above mentioned statement. The largest bank in Russia, Sberbank, has recently announced about its plans to join this economic union (R3). Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, Swift, (well known and authoritative institution) announced that it will consider blockchain technology as an instrument for updating and replacing its settlement protocols.
It is safe to say that the technology of distributional register is naturalized and evolving – we witnessed that in 2015. What shall we wait from 2016? We can’t wait to know. Happy New Year!