Consumer Study Highlights Bitcoin’s Benefits for Policymakers

Consumers' Research, an independent education group and organizer of a recent blockchain symposium, has published a new white paper on blockchain technology.

The white paper was officially released today, which recognizes the opportunities brought by blockchain technology and also explains the challenges faced by everyone today and potential solutions to these problems.

Moreover, the report often highlights the possible trading advantages of digital currencies like Bitcoin.

Joe Colangelo, executive director of the Consumer Research Group, wrote in the report's introduction:

“At its core, Bitcoin is about its ability to make money transfers faster around the world, improve property rights, and enable customers who have never met to trust each other.”

Colangelo went on to write that the white paper is intended to educate those unfamiliar with the technology and inform members of the Bitcoin community of obstacles that may hinder their ability to exert transformative power.

Overall, the report is positioned as a tool for mastering the technology, with this year shaping up to be a critical one for both Bitcoin and blockchain.

A new era of finance

In its preamble, the group also cited the original Bretton Woods Conference, which brought together hundreds of delegates from 44 Allied nations in New Hampshire in mid-July 1944, after World War II.

From then on, a financial system with the US dollar as the global reserve currency was established.

Consumer research believes that this financial system is just the tip of the iceberg of a new era of knowledge finance.

“We believe that the situation in which we now find ourselves is not the same as that in which our predecessors found themselves,” the report states.

“Transformative” technologies

Consumer research suggests that while blockchain technology has a large number of different use cases, the range of strategic goals that blockchain technology seeks to address is narrow.

The white paper identifies and explains five “transformative goals” that blockchain technology can achieve over time, which have been confirmed by the document’s authors and many collaborators.

These goals are: efficiency, consumer choice, access, privacy and protection, transparency, direct regulation and human rights.

The document goes on to spell out the measures that need to be implemented in succession to pave the way for new use cases.

For example, the report notes that the next generation of blockchains could focus on microtransactions, identity issuance and proof of asset ownership, making them more efficient and transparent.

Use Cases

At the same time, the white paper also presents some detailed use cases, such as "Smart Contracts: Building Blocks for Digital Markets" and "Game Theory and Cooperation: A Thought Experiment in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations."

The report notes that along with the opportunities and challenges, if the right approach is taken, the technology can be used to make real changes in the world.

“There is no doubt that the potential economic benefits of smart property and blockchain-based title registries could have a revolutionary impact on the global economy,” the report’s authors wrote, concluding:

“Most importantly, having property rights on the blockchain can provide a constructive building block for general financial inclusion.”