Answered: Is the Blockchain the Future of Publishing? Pt. 1
Is Blockchain Alive and Well?
To begin, let’s look at the big picture–blockchain is the future, no doubt. Similarly found in the early days of the internet, blockchain still has a long way to go. As for its own future in publishing, some still doubt it is the “great disrupter.” Let’s look at the big picture again… it seems obvious— the blockchain is here to live permanently. In 2020, Deloitte, a “Big Four” accounting firm, surveyed a large sum of high up executives- finding that the doubts about Blockchain’s relevancy are quickly lessening. They found that out of 1,000 companies in 7 countries, 34% already had a blockchain system in high use, while another 41% planned to add in new blockchain applications in the next years to come. Almost 40% of said companies intend on investing $4.5 million in blockchain in the next year as well.
What is Blockchain?
The CEO (Simon-Pierre Marion) of Scenarex, a Canadian company that builds blockchain solutions, compares the system of blockchain to a store’s ledger, specifically created to store and record all the information from transactions. We live in a digital world, so today, we are talking about a database that does a similar job.
The thing that sets a digital database apart is that you can’t tamper or eradicate it! In other words, if you record a transaction in a blockchain, it’s there for the rest of time. Each transaction is a link in the chain–thus a blockchain. Cryptocurrency or bitcoins uses blockchain, too! Nearly impossible to control, get rid of, or keep track of…all of which can be seen as great pros and scarry cons when dealing with funds!
The technology became known as DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology).
Many begin to realize the cool thing about DLTs is they could create applications for all kinds of things. This led to “Cambrian explosions of DLT’s, each built by competing groups of paid and unpaid ‘cypherpunks,’ and each different from the other in subtle ways that affected speed, transaction cost, utility, and so on. These tokens, aka digital assets (DAs), became tradeable and the value of the entire ‘crypto’ space was by the end of 2017 worth around 800 billion US dollars.”
The blockchain faced some pushback because of governments’ lack of transparency, among a few minor other things. Because of this, other industry players lost interest because of the vast unknown factors that accommodate this digital landscape. Today, the legitimate regulatory brakes are coming off, and it looks like it’s only going to BOOM from here because of it. States like Wyoming passed the first significant regulatory laws that provided clarity to the industry. Others all over the world are following in similar actions.
People want an easy interface, not something they have to spend time, energy, and frustration relearning. This means that the success that comes from blockchain products is really due to the seamless nature of the design and legitimacy of the solution it brings to our real life problems.
Inspired by Katherine Steiger for New Shelves on September 6, 2021
Original Blog: https://newshelves.com/blockchain-is-it-the-future-of-publishing/
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