HARI SREENIVASAN: Im walking on Wall Street with author Don Tapscott. Hes written a dozen books on technology and sees one that could change everything around us. Hes not the only believer. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about 20 percent in the past year, Bitcoin, a digital currency, is up more than 700 percent, with a total value of near $80 billion. Thats more than American Express. The surge has people wondering whether Bitcoin is in a bubble.
For Tapscott, that question is missing the real story.
DON TAPSCOTT, AUTHOR BLOCKCHAIN REVOLUTION: The real pony here is the underlying technology called the blockchain.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Tapscott and his son co-wrote a book called Blockchain Revolution, named after the technology that supports bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies. Theyre called that because of the cryptography, or computer code, that makes them secure.
Tapscott says the technology is the key to creating trust in peer-to-peer transactions, like sending or receiving money without a bank or a credit card company in between.
DON TAPSCOTT: Trust is achieved not by a big intermediary; its achieved by cryptography, by collaboration and by some clever code.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Heres how the blockchain works: when you send or receive an asset, the transaction is recorded in a global, public ledger. A network of millions of computers store copies of that ledger and work to validate new transactions in blocks. When each block is verified, its sealed and connected to the preceding block, which in turn is connected to every block that has ever been validated, creating a secure blockchain.
DON TAPSCOTT: There is now an immutable record of that transaction. And if I wanted to go and hack that transaction, say to use that money to pay somebody else, Id have to hack that block, plus the previous block, in the entire history of commerce on that block chain, not just on one computer, but across millions of computers simultaneously all using the highest level of cryptography while the most powerful computing resource in the world is watching me. The way I like to think of it is that is a blockchain is a highly processed thing sort of like a chicken nugget, and if you wanted to hack it, itd be like turning a chicken nugget back into a chicken. Now someday someone will be able to do that. But for now, its going to be tough.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Tapscott predicts these global ledgers, or blockchains, could affect several parts of the economy during the next decade, in particular, the financial industry.
HARI SREENIVASAN: In a blockchain future, what happens to the New York Stock Exchange?
DON TAPSCOTT: Well, a likely scenario is it becomes a fabulous museum, and it is a beautiful building when you think about it. But buying and selling a stock can be done peer-to-peer now using new blockchain platforms.
HARI SREENIVASAN: He says routine transactions, like using a credit card or making online payments with PayPal or Venmo, could be replaced with instant, peer-to-peer blockchain transactions, speeding up how long it takes and shrinking the costs.
DON TAPSCOTT: Think about something like you tap your card in a Starbucks and a bunch of messages go through different companies. Some of them using, you know, 30-year-old technology, and three days later, a settlement occurs. Well, if all of that were on a blockchain there would be no three-day delay. The payment and the settlement is the same activity. So it would happen instantly and in a secure way. So thats either going to disintermediate those players, or if those players are smart, theyll embrace this technology to speed up the whole metabolism of the financial industry.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Beyond upending financial transactions, Tapscott imagines a future where a blockchain could be used to transfer any kind of asset, from a users personal data to intellectual property.
Some of that has already begun. This is Consensys, a technology start-up in Brooklyn, New York. Joseph Lubin founded Consensys and helped develop the Ethereum blockchain, the second biggest blockchain in the world after Bitcoin. Ethereum launched in 2015.
JOSEPH LUBIN, CONSENSYS: Ethereum is by far the most powerful blockchain platform out there. It has the most expressive programming language.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Meaning Ethereum can do something pretty radical: it allows for what are known as smart contracts to be built into the code. So it can also transfer a set of instructions or conditions.
DON TAPSCOTT: Its kind of like what it sounds like its a contract that self-executes, and it has a payment system built into it. Sort of like a contract that has built in lawyers and governments and a bank account.
HARI SREENIVASAN: At Consensys, one project applies this idea to music.
JESSE GRUSHAK: Click buy album
HARI SREENIVASAN: Jesse Grushack is the founder of ujo, a music platform for artists to distribute their music through the blockchain. Artists decide what price to sell their music and pocket more from their intellectual property.
JESSE GRUSHAK, UJO MUSIC: Were looking at how to make the music industry more efficient, but at the end of the day, our top level goal is getting artists paid more for their work and all their creative content.
HARI SREENIVASAN: But ujo is not yet easy to use. There is only one album on the platform, and it requires users to buy music with ether, the cryptocurrency used on the Ethereum blockchain.
JESSE GRUSHAK: The blockchain is still in its infancy right now. Its still kind of in the Netscape phase, really, of the internet. You dont have that AOL, you dont have that landing page that opens the world up to you. Its still a little nerdy, its still a little technical but were working really hard to kind of make it usable, make the user experience seamless because really this technology we want to be in the hands of everyone.
HARI SREENIVASAN: When he said, a little nerdy, he wasnt kidding. In order to get an idea, I went out and bought some crypto-currencies online and the process was not easy. Certainly not as easy as going to the bank to get cash or calling a stockbroker to buy a stock. But then, using my first email account in the early 90s, that wasnt easy either.
DON TAPSCOTT: I think were in 1994. And in 94, we had the internet and most people were using it for a single application, email. And thats kind of like Bitcoin is today. The application is called a currency, but were starting to see the rise of the web as we did in 94. A general purpose platform for building applications that changed many, many industries.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Youve literally written the book on the blockchain. How do you know that this is actually working, that people are believing in this, investing in this, understanding the potential in this?
DON TAPSCOTT: In every single industry now, companies are starting to implement pilots to explore how this technology can change their operations.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Tapscott points to retailer Walmart, which has done a pilot using a blockchain to track food safety, and manufacturer Foxconn, which is experimenting with using a blockchain to track its supply chain.
Still, this blockchain believer acknowledges it has a lot left to prove.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Theres several critics out there that kind of look at this and say, This is like tulip mania. This cryptocurrency stuff, this is a bubble, bigger than Ive ever seen before. Theres a bunch of people that dont know a thing about whats going on that just want to see something go up.
DON TAPSCOTT: Well, for sure theres a hype cycle that were into now. But the biggest impact will be that blockchain itself is going to change the fundamental operations of banks, of retail companies of supply chains, of manufacturing companies, of governments, and of every institution in society.
View post:
Searching for the future of currency, major companies try Bitcoin technology - PBS NewsHour
- Chinas Bitcoin Exchanges Say Banks Will Close Their Accounts [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- How I created my own bitcoin [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- How I created my own bitcoin-like currency [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- Bitcoin players knock on Washington doors [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- How does Bitcoin work? - Bitcoin [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- Should We Do a Bitcoin Sketch? - Video [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Talk Show #4 with Chris Ellis and Thomas Hunt - Video [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- Bitcoin - an Introduction - Video [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- Bitcoin ATM Unveiled on Capitol Hill - Video [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- Fla. Bitcoin Case Tests Money Laundering Limits - Video [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- Capitol Hill Bitcoin ATM...No Anonymity! April 10 2014 - Video [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- BREAKING: US Congressman Steve Stockman To Introduce First Bitcoin Bill - Video [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- 10 Things You Didn't Know About BitCoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- All about Bitcoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- Internet vs Bitcoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 11th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 11th, 2014]
- Bitcoin: The Future of Currency? - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Watching Bitcoin dropping to new lows - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Bitcoin ATM unveiled in Washington DC: revolutionary digital currency arrives on Capitol Hill - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Qu'est-ce que le bitcoin ? - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Decentralize Everything -- Congresswoman Velazquez supports Bitcoin -- Stallman in Vienna - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Drake Bitcoin's Here Music Video - Bitcoin T Shirt Store - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- China tightens leash on bitcoin - Biz Wire - April 4,2014 - BONTV China - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- What is BITCOIN? Andreas Antonopoulos & Amir Taaki explain BTC value - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Texas Bitcoin Conference - Robocoin & Coinvault ATM - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Texas Bitcoin Conference - BitShares - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Is Bitcoin the Future of Money? (with Timothy B. Lee) - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Robert Murphy at Texas Bitcoin Conference 2014 about Austrian Economics, money theory and Bitcoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- CryptexCard - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Father of Virtual Reality on Bitcoin April 8 2014 - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- California's first bitcoin ATM launches in Silicon Valley - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Fight Night: Kickboxing for bitcoin and Max Keiser 'defeats banksters' - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Bitcoin blunder: Satoshi Nakamoto denies all involvement with cryptocurrency [Last Updated On: April 13th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 13th, 2014]
- Bitcoin gets easier for consumers to buy, spend [Last Updated On: April 13th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 13th, 2014]
- 11.04.14 Forex, Bitcoin Romanov Capital - Video [Last Updated On: April 13th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 13th, 2014]
- USA: Capitol Hill gets its own Bitcoin ATM - Video [Last Updated On: April 13th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 13th, 2014]
- Bitcoin, a moeda virtual. - Video [Last Updated On: April 13th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 13th, 2014]
- Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto tracked down, but says story has no currency [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- Bitcoin's backers know they need to win you over [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- [Structure] Heartbleed and Bitcoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- BitCoin mining frame - Video [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- Where Do You Think US Bitcoin Regulations Are Headed? - Video [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- Dwyer 4-11-14 Bitcoin Update - Video [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- 4/10/14 - China & BTC, Bitcoin Tax Solutions, Libra, BitInvest Coincards - Video [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- Ben Lawsky & NY Regulators on Bitcoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- Bill to Change IRS Ruling on Bitcoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- Bitcoin is not over! Bitcoin Indian Food Night Saturday! (adult language, parody and yelling) - Video [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- Demonstrating a Bitcoin ATM at Dig South - Video [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- 10 Things You Didn t Know About BitCoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 14th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 14th, 2014]
- How Bitcoin Works in 5 Minutes - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Below $400, Massive Security Breach, 4,000 Merchants, and Congress - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Reddit Co-founder Alexis Ohanian talks Bitcoin security, Mt. Gox on Joe Rogan Experience - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Cointools: Drupal & Bitcoin == $awesome - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Bitcoin ATM, Black Star Pastry, Rosebery, Sydney, Australia (Vending machine, BTM) - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- My Bitcoin Call to Alex Jones Infowars Digital Paper Wallets Storage - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- The Bitcoin Group #25 (Live) -- Bitcoin Sports -- Gox Buyout? -- Sidechains -- Dogecoin Merged? - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- 4/11/14 - China, Mt. Gox buyout, Gyft Cloud, BIT, new bitcoin symbol - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- 9 Year Old Explains Bitcoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- CITP Bitcoin Panel 2 Altcoins - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Why US Regulators Should Go Easy on Bitcoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- In Crypto We Trust Hackathon Pitches - Bitcoin Expo 2014 - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- CITP Bitcoin - Panel 1: Economics and Public Policy - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- David Chen of Lightspeed Ventures visits Plug and Play Bitcoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Video: Roundup of This Week's Bitcoin News 11th April 2014 - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Peace and Bitcoin Remastered - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- [Bitcoin] Cannot be divorced from pre-existing political theory - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Trade 114 - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Wall Street's Fair Value of Bitcoin - Inside Bitcoins NYC 2014 - Video [Last Updated On: April 15th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 15th, 2014]
- Elliotte Wave Technical Analysis Applied to Bitcoin - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Bitcoin Wisdom Depth Chart - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Live - Paris Bitcoin Startup #2 @TheFamily - Mercredi 16/04/2014 ds 19h - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Not Tax Day, Bitcoin Day! - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Preview: The Bitcoin Uprising - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- WCN Live: iNacho -- an interview with Jerica Truax -- win a bitcoin by rating Nachos! 🙂 - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Can You Use Bitcoin for a Tax Haven? - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- What Is Proof Of Stake In Nextcoin (NXT) vs. Proof Of Work In Bitcoin (BTC) - By Tai Zen - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Bitcoin, little failures and huge successes - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Dutch Ethereum & Bitcoin Meetup: Coin Unlimited over Bitcoin en altcoins - Edwin van den Ouden - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Dutch Ethereum & Bitcoin Meetup: Tor (The Onion Router) Joachim de Koning - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Dutch Ethereum & Bitcoin Meetup: First Steps in Ethereum - Joachim de Koning (part one) - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]
- Dutch Ethereum & Bitcoin Meetup: First Steps in Ethereum Joachim de Koning (part two) - Video [Last Updated On: April 17th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 17th, 2014]