I have dedicated two posts to the blockchain (here and here). In the first I tried to tell the philosophical elements underlying his invention: it is technological innovation with deep roots in humanistic thought, in its libertarian case. In the second I tried, not without difficulty, to explain what it is and how it works. I don’t know if the grandmothers and granddaughters who have read it have benefited from it intellectually, but what is certain is that I understand how hard the job of the popularizer is. At this point I would like to close this ideal trilogy dedicated to blockchain technology by trying to understand what can be done with it.
The ledger of bitcoins
First of all, the idea of the block network is somehow a forerunner to bitcoin but it is precisely with it that people have begun to hear about it. The latter, in fact, is its first fruit, the first “thing” created on the blockchain and thanks to the blockchain, without which it would not exist. The reason is very simple: only a public, immutable and decentralized ledger can guarantee the issuance of a digital currency in turn decentralized. Furthermore, only its immutability can guarantee that every transaction is certain and safe.
The first application created thanks to the blockchain was therefore the first decentralized digital currency in history. For years, many have even made the two coincide in some way, like when Nutella is called every chocolate and hazelnut spread. Indeed to create bitcoin needed to create its own blockchain. And for 4 or 5 years everything was more or less confined there.
Ethereum, a highway where anyone can move
Then, in 2016, a team of super nerds led by Vitalik Buterin created a new blockchain called Ethereum and to finance the operation launched a new digital currency of the same name. Vitalik and his colleagues thought a new blockchain was needed with partly different technical characteristics from that of bitcoin, and that potentially should be used to do different things than just generating a digital currency.
Blockchain, what the hell is it?
by Adriano Marconetto
In just a few years Ethereum has become the queen of all blockchains, which today we can also imagine as a kind of highways where anyone can “circulate” while respecting the rules.
While on the bitcoin blockchain there is only bitcoin, There is much more to the Ethereum blockchain than Ethereum digital currency precisely because it was designed to be a decentralized universe habitable by those who want to use that technology to develop new compatible activities.
Ethereum and decentralized finance
Naturally the first field of application was that linked to decentralized finance (DeFi), with dozens and then hundreds of solutions / applications that in many cases reflect the centralized models of classical finance, but on-chain and therefore decentralized.
On Ethereum they are found exchange, wallet (custody systems for your crypto), various types of specific technical solutions to make DeFi assets work, liquidity pools and so on: all decentralized. But they are also found “Companies” that do other things on Ethereumsuch as, for example, supply chain certification for agricultural products, guaranteed by the inviolability of the blocks.
And this is only the beginning. The beginning of Web 3, or the decentralized internet, as opposed to the (centralized) one of the Silicon Valley giants. Vitalik Buterin imagined Ethereum for this very reason: to do anything possible with it, well beyond just financial things. For example, a decentralized social network without censorship (like Elon Musk’s Twitter but without bosses and not controllable by anyone). Or the whole world, or rather the worlds, of the metaverse.
The blockchain explained to my grandmother
by Adriano Marconetto
The decentralized Web 3
The potential of blockchain technology is so immense that, after the first two, several others have been born, each with its own characteristics: who is faster, who allows a strong saving on gas fees (i.e. what has to be paid to the blockchain itself for be able to use it), and so on. And each with its own currency: if you do activities on Ethereum web page on Ethereumse le si fa su Polkadot si paga in Polkadot, etc.
Therefore, those who buy these digital currencies do so because they are essential to operate on one of the blockchainsor because it thinks that a particular blockchain offers very important specific advantages for which it will be used a lot in the future, and therefore its crypto currency will be increasingly in demand.
The guide
Okay, but what’s the difference between metaverse and Web3?
by Andrea Daniele Signorelli
In the next few years, several business activities will be transferred at least in part to blockchain: let’s think of corporate accounting or many processes in the healthcare world. Our centralized world will increasingly use solutions based on technology and the philosophy of decentralization.
So, if until yesterday the crypto coins were mostly owned and purchased by “kids” or in any case by a niche audience, tomorrow, at least those of the blockchains, will become mass, indispensable for working on block chains, as well as the pound is essential to buy a beer in a London pub.