10 years ago was born Bitcoin, an anarchist Cryptocurrency whose ambition was to revolutionize the global financial system. Today, if cryptocurrency has not (yet?) Revolutionized the world, Blockchain technology is needed.
Offering an alternative currency not subject to the interference of governments and banks, considered responsible for the global financial crisis that has struck us since 2008, was the original goal of the creators of Bitcoin! After a decade – and no one yet knows who is hiding behind the nickname Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin – this goal is far from being achieved, and cryptocurrencies are only waiting, for the most part, to return to the rank, that of an exchange alternative, secure but without much influence.
Yet, a brilliant architecture has been detected behind the Bitcoin, the Blockchain. Because apart from the generation of imitating ecosystems, cryptocurrency is mainly at the origin of a phenomenon. The decentralized model of the distributed ledger may well be needed in many areas. Far from the complexity of mining and converting real currencies into virtual currencies, and vice versa!
Bitcoin as Blockchain must face many criticisms
Even relying on a highly secure blockchain infrastructure, Bitcoin has been hacked several times. And its followers found themselves unable to turn to a central authority to exercise their rights (absent!). Merchants who accept Bitcoin are rare. As for the crypto-currencies that are multiplying, most are doomed to disappear.
A contrary wind blows even today. In 2007, already, and even before Bitcoin was made public, an expert from The Economist said: ” Bitcoins and other cryptographic currencies are useless “. Today, The Economist, again, finds that 706 ICOs have raised $ 18 billion from institutional and retail investors. But accompanies this observation of a comment, that the ICO run in a legal vacuum …
And some experts are beginning to say that the benefits of blockchains would be ” overestimated “. Promising technology – thanks to Gartner! – The Blockchain is today considered the fruit of a hype. And the possible source of a new bubble. Warnings are multiplying … Without going that far, and while pilot projects are increasing, one thing is clear: Blockchain is heavy, slow, and has a high cost in the back office.
On the other hand, considered as an additional layer of security, the Blockchain imposes, in the follow-up of the transactions, the contracting, the supply-chain and the transport, the follow-up of the administrative tasks, etc. So, 10 years later, take cryptocurrencies for what they are, an epiphenomenon with an uncertain future, and let Blockchain, which still has to prove itself.