Effective use precipitates the understanding of the blockchain, say entrepreneurs

Published 18:55, 20 August 2018

Updated at 18:55, 20 August 2018 [19659004] MANILA, Philippines – Blockchain, driven to the mainstream by the rise of its most popular Bitcoin application, is now almost inevitable, touted by an army of supporters as the biggest technological revolution since the World Wide Web in the years & ld; 90.

Brock Pierce – a lively technology advocate, blockchain entrepreneur, and even the young Gordon Bombay, the protagonist of the Disney movie of the years & # 90; The Mighty Ducks – certainly believes it. Pierce, along with a co-defender Serry Osmeña, was recently in the Philippines, talking to various actors in the local blockchain scene to offer education, including the media.

Pierce says the problem with blockchain now, as far as mass understanding and adoption is concerned, is that it might be a difficult concept to grasp. It looks hazy. Decentralized systems. Master books distributed Immutable and transparent records. Blockchain and the terms that surround it, are a mouthful; the technicalities, intimidating and inhospitable, especially for the end user who just wants to use it to make life a little easier as smartphones do. (READ: Blockchain technology: a beginner's guide)

ADVOCATES DI BLOCKCHAIN. Pierce, to the right, is a counselor, mentor and board member of several digital currency companies, while Osmeña, on the left, is SEED's founder and CEO in Los Angeles in the United States, a community of entrepreneurs focused on technology-oriented solutions. . Photo by Gelo Gonzales / Rappler

It is difficult to understand things that we can not hold in our hands. Consider the internet and the World Wide Web: more people can define it as the technology that allows us to send emails, chat with friends and publish on social media accounts, rather than defining its structure and its protocols. Understanding came with the use.

So Pierce and Osmeña have a simple suggestion: immerse the toes in blockchain in its current form, more easily usable, cryptocurrency. To be more specific: Get a portfolio of cryptocurrency and practice sending and receiving cryptocurrencies: digital money, in essence. Hope is, with the use, to follow a more practical and useful understanding and, subsequently, a wider adoption. And it pays to get the technology acquiescent now that Pierce says that blockchain will be big in the Philippines.

Remittances of money

Pierce believes that the Philippines will be a key, if not the most important, market of the blockchain, and this because of the amount of remittances from foreign Filipino workers (OFW). Money blockchain has a purpose ready to serve in the Philippines, he says. Instead of sending money through traditional means, blockchain-enabled platforms could serve as a faster way to transfer money while reducing the fees charged by banks or money transfers.

Blockchain has a way to go, however, as the debate over the real effectiveness of the blockchain compared to traditional services and banks is still, above all, unstable.

Pierce also mentions that blockchain could one day tap into the millions of Filipinos that remain posted, improve financial inclusion and allow more people to make use of financial instruments such as loans, credit and investment instruments traditionally provided by banks and other financial institutions.

As blockchain organizations like the Blockchain Association of the Philippines, banks like Unionbank and entrepreneurs like Pierce and Osmeña try to create a blockchain environment working here in the Philippines, there is some incentive to anticipate the curve, and further educate yourself on the technology, or simply, start experimenting with a cryptocurrency now.

Online games and casino chips

The two, further simplifying the blockchain image, provided two examples of work with which cryptocurrencies can be compared to: currency of videogames and chips of the casino. Online video games have their in-game economy, says Pierce. Players looking to buy new items for their character can earn money in the game by playing or buying in-game currency for real money. Regardless of the method, there is a negotiation of values ​​that occur within the game. This is similar to transactions in a blockchain network, only a much safer architecture than the data blockchain.

In online video games, all data on how much money your character is stored in the central server of the game, making it vulnerable to hacks or alterations. In the blockchain, each node or computer in the blockchain network acts as custodian of that record, verifying and authenticating a transaction with complicated mathematical calculations. There is no gatekeeper of the record; everyone in the network is.

The use of these currencies by online players, says Pierce, can give them an edge over other users who have not been exposed to this type of digital money – just like using a cryptocurrency portfolio can now help acclimatize people to what technology can be capable of.

Blockchain tokens, which store the value inside a blockchain network, are similar to those of a casino, says Osmeña. It can be earned within that blockchain network with methods assigned by that particular network. For example, a blockchain news platform can generate tokens for a journalist or journalist, paid by the public with tokens purchased using traditional money.

An advertising platform can serve ads to users, earning users' tokens that they can then exchange free internet access, similar to what ODX, a subsidiary of the local technology company Xurpas, proposes. There is a cycle of value creation.

In a similar way, a casino has its own value creation system: a player can participate in the casino by purchasing chips with real money, and then putting those chips into play for a potential reward – or loss, from other part.

The casino gives value to the chips, promising the participants the opportunity to exchange them for real money when they wish. Blockchain networks attribute value to tokens, promising to meet any value. Again, the value in those tokens is assured by the blockchain network, accurately verifying how many tokens are due to whom.

It is this security that separates the blockchain networks from the internet in its current form today, says Pierce. Unlike free and open Internet connections, transactions are tracked and authenticated by an entire computer network, immutable records are kept and are transparent.

It is the Web 3.0, the two say. It starts with cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-based financial technologies, but architecture can be adapted to other verticals including social media, video games and journalism, just to name a few. – Rappler.com