Blockchain Unchained: Bitcoin Was Just the Beginning

The real-time transaction and settlement technology is viewed by some as the breakthrough that’s going to revolutionize electronic payments systems, and by others as the technological grenade that’s going to rip a hole in the world of banking systems as we know it. The truth is, nobody knows how things will turn out with any degree of certainty. In my opinion, blockchain is potentially one of the most disruptive business technologies to emerge in the digital age, replacing the traditional bookkeeping system of single private ledgers kept in siloed databases and updated in daily batch settlements with a chain of shared, encrypted public ledgers, linked and validated by network consensus in real time to enable instantaneous settlement. Transactions are said to be “immutable,” because they are confirmed by the network, and cannot be altered by an individual.

Read more