Stop talking about blockchain!

Things about Bitcoin and blockchain have been discussed many times. There are many opinions in the circle now. Some people exaggerate blockchain and even think it is the second Internet of the future. It seems that a book about blockchain came out recently, and even mentioned Bitcoin 3.0 and the once popular DAC. In my personal opinion, these things are a bit too big and easy to bullshit, haha~~ Why do I say that.

     Personally, I think the biggest application of Bitcoin at present is speculation, followed by illegal applications such as pornography, gambling, and drugs, and then possibly cross-border transactions. Only a small part is used for local payments, rewards, games, or other things... Although there are no specific figures to support this, this is indeed the current situation.

     The current price of the currency is at a relatively low level. This is the view of the Bitcoin bulls, but from the outside, the price of the currency is still so high. Why is Bitcoin still more than 1,000? Isn't it a scam? Why hasn't it broken yet? I think it's about the same as Q coins, 1 yuan, haha!

The main reason why the currency price cannot go up is that there is relatively little water in the entire pool. Of course, the price seems to be relatively stable this year. If it is used as a medium for cross-border transactions, the high or low price does not have much impact on cross-border transactions, and the price stability requirements are indeed very high. For example, gold, although its price also fluctuates, is still quite stable relative to other currencies. The world has a relatively consistent understanding of it. Gold is a natural currency. This sentence has always been said, and it seems that there has been no change for thousands of years.

     This seems a bit off topic, so let me talk about my understanding of Bitcoin and blockchain over the past two years.

     It is actually not very difficult to understand these two things, but often the position determines the mind, and simple things suddenly become complicated.

     As for Bitcoin, no matter whether the central bank agrees or not, it has become the general equivalent of currency in real life. To put it bluntly, it can be exchanged for money and can be used to buy goods. As for how much it is worth, haha, just ask the market. What you and I say doesn't count.

For blockchain, this is a bit difficult to understand. In fact, it is just a ledger, or a database, which records all the transaction information of Bitcoin. Of course, this ledger or database has several characteristics.

1. It is basically difficult to forge data. Unless there is a 51% attack, only the later data can be changed, and the previous records cannot be overturned and re-created.

2. It is transparent and can be seen by people all over the world.

3. The processing speed of this database is relatively slow, and it takes an average of 10 minutes to process one block. The amount of data in a block is always limited. The current maximum is 1M, and it will be expanded in the future. Of course, the expansion of the blockchain size is still related to many factors, not just the number of transactions, but also to the global network speed and processing power. It cannot be too large, and the exact size is still under experimentation.

     Blockchain has the above characteristics, which leads to some advantages and disadvantages of Bitcoin. In addition, the Bitcoin program is open source and can be changed by anyone.

Advantages: transparency, openness and no fraud.

Disadvantages: slow speed and limited capacity.

     Anyone can view this database, run a full node, and download the entire database for analysis. Some people say that Bitcoin can be used to launder money. In fact, the risk of money laundering is very high because each of your transactions is open and transparent. Of course, there is a business called money laundering, but if the number is too large, I personally feel that there will be clues. Moreover, this database cannot be changed. Even if you have 51% of the computing power, you can only change the data behind, not the data in front. As long as you have high enough authority, ordinary databases can be modified. This permanently eliminates the possibility of artificial fraud.

     Based on these characteristics, the applications that Bitcoin can and cannot do are actually very clear, such as notarization, gambling, and global transfers. These are the advantages of Bitcoin, while small payments, rewards, etc. do not seem to be Bitcoin's specialties.