Читать книгу Bitcoin, Blockchain & Co. - Joe Martin - Страница 10

An analysis shows why knowledge is lost through time, and the result is unequivocal: knowledge and information could only be managed centrally up to now. Central management, central storage, central control. Anything that is centralized can be changed, manipulated and lost through destruction.

Who knows what valuable knowledge was contained in the thousands of scrolls and books at The Great Library of Alexandria—one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world—before it was destroyed by a series of fires over a number of years. The information lost could have been the foundation of many great advancements for humanity, and the loss has probably held back the development of the western world considerably. Just as the knowledge of the Inca was lost, no one knows for sure what contributions from other cultures we have missed out on. What everyone today knows, though, is hard disk drive errors and computer crashes. In some ways, that is also a loss of knowledge. When the excel table or the document you’ve been working on are gone, you have no choice but to start from scratch. Your carefully formulated thoughts are lost. The skilfully created table is lost. Annoying.

Until now, this system of central management was the best solution to maintaining, organizing and protecting our valuable knowledge. States were and are centralized structures; sometimes that took the form of a monarch ruling a kingdom or a democratic government that leads and manages the state. Ultimately, everything is ordered and managed from a central point of control, even if there is devolved local administration.

Even if you live in a democracy or a federalized state, you should be under no illusions. The most important information—for example, tax numbers, our social security number, and our vehicle registrations—are all centralized at the highest data levels and are stored in some linked database. These databases, which can be manipulated at any time, can also fail, be hacked, and are permanently under threat of viruses.

If centrality is the problem, or if centrality is identified as the predetermined breaking point, is there another solution?

Yes, there is. A solution to the problem of centrality came to the fore in 2008 with the birth of a concept called “Bitcoin.”

The Bitcoin white paper, the folding paper of the crypto industry, was published by Satoshi Nakamoto. To this day, no-one knows who is behind this pseudonym. It might be a lone wolf or it could be a group of computer software experts. Nakamoto describes how a group of computers can technologically be made to deliver the truth, and nothing but the truth.

A truth that is firmly written for all time and on which you can rely 100 percent. A truth, on the basis of which one can blindly base one’s future, and that works completely without any trusted persons or trust in itself.

And so an exciting idea was born. Today that idea is building an ever-growing following of enthusiasts. It is reaching the masses increasingly quickly and efficiently, and it is massively changing our society and its administration. That is why it is all the more important to know the basics of this technology; otherwise we are each facing a fait accompli, wondering how we can jump onto a train to the future that is already departing.