Читать книгу Bitcoin, Blockchain & Co. - Joe Martin - Страница 7

Blockchain technology will change the world and how we interact and transact in it. We will no longer need to trust anyone because the truth is anchored for all time, unalterably, in the blockchain.

Whatever is contained in a public blockchain is true and reliable. You can buy a house without a lawyer and even without a copy of the seller’s ID. You can trust that it is the real owner from the data in the public blockchain. If the transaction is then closed, you become the new owner and that new information can be found in the public blockchain. The record of your ownership exists forever, or until you enter the sale to someone else into the public blockchain. It is safe and without risk, and it allows for seamless transactions between strangers anywhere on Earth. It all happens without need for a lawyer and with low or no fees involved.

The public blockchain will automatically enter you as the owner if all the preconditions stored as an smart contract in the public blockchain are met. The public blockchain holds the door open to you because your unique cryptographic key fits and that of the previous owner no longer does. (Please note that I quite deliberately keep writing “public blockchain” and not “blockchain.” There will be more about that later in the book.)

That is, of course, a futuristic example, and I know that it appears a little contrived. But what if I told you that we already have the technology for that? What if I told you that the first projects in which real estate is being managed via a blockchain are already up and running? They are in Costa Rica and Sweden.

I have chosen this example deliberately because it is very provocative. There are many examples which are less challenging, such as digital money, marriages via the blockchain, automatic electricity delivery from neighbor to neighbor, or automatic betting on anything at all. What about a €100 million bond from Mercedes-Benz via blockchain? This has been in place since June 2017.

Blockchain technology is here and it is not going away. It will not disappear overnight or over the weekend. It is far too late for that.