Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
November 12, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- A significant
amount of the Blockchain’s supposed use cases are not as they
seem.
Today, Coindesk publicized the
existence of an IBM patent that claims to have discovered another
new way of using the Blockchain.
Here, by new, we mean use case
beyond Satoshi’s original vision for the Bitcoin network.
Therefore, in any situation like this, we could eliminate the
possibility of this news being related to the Blockchain’s simplest
usage as a ledger.
The question is: should
we?
Based on IBM’s latest announcement
and others, what seems to be the most logical answer is no. More
specifically, with anything in any emergent industry, each person
should be consistently doing a deep level of his or her own
research in the space before believing anything. That includes not
only fact checking what industry teams claim but of course, what
the media claims as well, even when the source you are using is
supposed to be a trusted outlet.
In other words, at least verify
everything from other sources before you take it as
true.
If we use the example of what IBM
announced, it is fairly easy to see why. Late last week, their
patent application was published, which concretely says that they
have determined how the Blockchain can be used as “a tamper
resistant log of scientific research.” In Coindesk’s article on the
subject, they seem to suggest that this might revolutionize the way
that scientists conduct and publish their research.
With only a basic understanding of
what the Blockchain is, however, we can see why this is not likely
to be exactly as they say. If you remember Satoshi’s white paper,
the popularization of the Blockchain through the Bitcoin network
began with its existence as an immutable ledger of events. While in
Bitcoin’s case, these events are transactions, the Blockchain
functions as a tamper-proof record of just about anything because
of its code. That is its primary use case.
In circling back to the recent news
from IBM, a strong, yet simple argument can be made for why their
conclusion is not as unique as it seems. Creating a tamper
resistant log of scientific research is a precise example of what
the Blockchain’s foundational usage should be. There is no
difference here between such a log and an immutable, decentralized
ledger.
Both increase trust in data in an
indisputable fashion.
By: BGN Editorial Staff