Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
December 12, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- Blockstream
continues to push the boundaries of how Bitcoin can be used. The
company is headed by Adam Black who is one of the most influential
individuals involved in the cryptocurrency industry. He was the
creator of HashCash back in 1997, which formulated some of the
primary programming concepts that allowed for Bitcoin’s
creation.
More Than Internet
Money
With Blockstream, Adam Black has
developed the the most meaningful systems to be integrated into the
BTC network - known as the Bitcoin Core network. Unlike many other
ICOs in the past few years that have raised upwards of $100
million, Blockstream began with a funding round of $76 million. The
most widely known development is the Lightning network, but they
also created another payment layer called the Liquid Network and a
system of satellites dedicated to Bitcoin network
payments.
Blockstream is involved in the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as well. This group established the
standards for the internet. Every major browser such as Google
Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge follow their directions. It is
possible that the Bitcoin network API could be integrated in a
universal way.
Satellite
Payments
The service was first offered in
August 2017 for only traditional BTC transactions, not those on the
Lightning network, and was offered only in Africa, Europe and the
Americas. They have now updated the system to allow for lightning
network payments, and expanded the regions customers can install
the system to the Asia-Pacific region.
Lightning network is an additional
layer to Bitcoin that went live in March of this year. The goal is
to reduce transaction costs and increase speed, ultimately allowing
the Bitcoin network to scale to global use. The layer accomplishes
this by allowing nodes to hold some transaction data to the side,
rather than being forced to immediately group all transactions into
a block. These “side-chains” allow transactions to be settled
immediately, before they are actually submitted to the root BTC
network ledger. It’s essentially a way of batching transactions
more efficiently.
Global Economy
Implications
The service involves installing a
small satellite dish. Standard TV satellite receivers work to
receive the signals - they just need a USB output to a personal
computer, or other dedicated computer hardware, such as a Raspberry
Pi. The software required to process the services are free
and open-source, such as GNU Radio.
“There are third-party developers
that have taken an interest to build local infrastructure using the
satellite service, for example connecting it with mesh networks to
make bitcoin more accessible in emerging markets.” - CEO Adam
Back
The system is a dedicated internet
services that operates only for transactions on the Bitcoin
network. The implications of this are especially important for
countries involved in economic or cultural turmoil. It is part of a
greater issue of maintaining individual freedoms such as free
speech.
By: BGN Editorial Staff