BlockChains: Technology that’s taking over the world BIT by BIT Author: Fintuned | Date: July 30, 2017

• applications bitcoins blockchain fintech technology

How Blockchain is becoming a pinnacle of the Fintech Revolution

When I first sat down to write this article and tell you all about Block chains and how they work, I thought I’ll create a synopsis of the concept, its applicability and much more. But the topic has come across to be so vast and fascinating that a mere thousand words cannot suffice it. So I’ve tried to explain it in the most basic terms to give you a basic idea about what it is, how it functions and where it is currently being applied (We all know about Bitcoins, but there is so much more that this revolutionary concept can do. )

It all started back in 2009, when Satoshi Nakamoto published the paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” and brought Bitcoins and Block chains to the spotlight. It is renowned by many as “the biggest technological innovation since the internet”. Since then, Bitcoins and blockchain technology have both exploded with each Bitcoin now being equal to 169553.21 Indian Rupee (As on 20^th July 2017) and the Block Chain industry seeing funding of over 1 Billion dollars from investors.

So we now come to the most fundamental question, what is BlockChain?

By definition, the blockchain is an incorruptible digital distributed ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value. To explain in simpler terms, I’d like to use the example used by Coindesk of Wikipedia. In a BlockChain, many people write entries into a ledger, and those same many people control how information is updated and amended. Likewise, in Wikipedia too, the entries are not by a single publisher and no one person controls the information. The difference between them arises when wherein although a client is able to change Wikipedia entries, they do it on the centralized server which contains a so called ‘master copy’. It is this ‘mastercopy’ that is edited on a server and seen by all the users. However, in BlockChain technology, every individual server in the network gets updated independently. It is this difference that makes BlockChain technology truly amazing as it eliminates the need for an intermediary/trusted party to facilitate transactions and relationships. This is why this technology has been expanding rapidly and has found a place in our lives in various ways in the form of various applications.

Here’s a list of the applications which use BlockChain technology-

• Xapo- Xapo is a Bitcoin wallet service which helps you store/buy/sell Bitcoins and is described as the Fort Knox of Bitcoin storage. Xapo also has the Bitcoin debit card allowing you to use Bitcoins for everyday purchases.

https://xapo.com/

• Nasdaq Linq- Nasdaq Linq is a ledger technology which is being used to trade non-public securities. It was first used in 2015 to issue shares by Chain.com to a private investor.

http://ir.nasdaq.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=948326

• OpenBazaar– It allows you to open your own market place and trade peer to peer with your clients thus eliminating the need for middlemen like Amazon.com. All transactions in this marketplace are with zero fees as there is no intermediary between the buyer and the seller.

https://www.openbazaar.org/

 

• LaZooz- This is one of my favorite applications of this technology. LaZooz is similar to Ola and Uber yet far more ingenious. It allows using the unutilised capacity in a vehicle through real time ride sharing. Using BlockChain technology it directly connects the drivers of the cars with people looking to go in the same direction. I can already imagine all the new people you will meet and new conversations you will have through this.

http://lazooz.org/

 

• Ujo Music- Ujo directly connects the artists to the consumers thus removing the need for mediators like Apple Music and allows artists to earn much more through their music.

https://ujomusic.com/

 

• One name– You can use this app to create your own Blockchain ID. You can then use this ID to login into sites like Facebook and Skype thus no longer requiring to have passwords for different accounts. Your entire digital identity can be stored in one place through this.

https://onename.com/

 

• BitCoins– This is a ‘duh’ entry to the list, but the list would be incomplete without it.

A special mention goes to ZebPlay, it is India’s leading BitCoin wallet with over 700,000 users and has over one million USD invested in it.

BlockChain technology is constantly evolving and digital currency is the only the start of this revolution. We will keep telling you more about the advances of this technology as and when they happen!

Till then keep following us.

 

To know more about BlockChain Technology please refer to the links below-

https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/

http://www.coindesk.com/information/what-is-blockchain-technology/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ameer-rosic-/5-blockchain-applications_b_13279010.html

 

https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2016/06/FinTech-new.pdf