5 Lesser-Known Facts on Blockchain
Discover 5 lesser-known facts about blockchain technology.
Bitcoin, and blockchain in general, has many lesser-known facts that are waiting to be addressed. In this article, we dive beneath the murky waters of blockchain technology and uncover interesting quirks and features.
The Word Blockchain
Despite its wide usage in the current tech and crypto space, the term “blockchain” is not specifically mentioned anywhere in the bitcoin whitepaper. Instead, the bitcoin whitepaper mentions the word “chain” multiple times throughout in reference to: Chain of blocks, Chain of digital signatures, proof-of-work chain, and chain of ownership.
The word blockchain was later adopted by the early bitcoin community in the bitcoin.org forums.
DAOs and Smart Contracts will be the norm.
A DAO is a blockchain-based organization that is collectively owned and controlled by its members. Blockchain will revolutionize the traditional model of companies as they are known today. An example of one such company right now is Uniswap with its cryptocurrency token UNI.
The rules of the company are all enforced digitally, shareholders and directors own a certain number of tokens that will be used to vote on decisions. Rules are pre-programmed to allow what can take place in the system along with some being hard coded using smart contracts that cannot be altered.
Smart contracts on the other hand are designed and implemented within the blockchain and therefore inherit some of the blockchain’s properties like decentralization and immutability. The outcome of the smart contract is validated by everyone in the network, preventing outside interference. In addition, the smart contract can never be changed or modified.
As programmable code, smart contracts are particularly useful in situations that involve the transfer or exchange of funds between two or more parties, thus, they can be designed for various use cases like the creation of tokenized assets, voting systems, crypto wallets, DEX’s and mobile applications.
NFTs and Web 3.0
An NFT is a crypto asset representing something unique and collectible using blockchain technology. Simply put, a non-fungible token cannot be faked or copied. The first 5000 days by Beeple sold for $69 million on March 21st and is not interchangeable.
NTFs come in all shapes and sizes, an example is a music NFT which can represent ownership of a song, ownership of an element in the song and a share of royalties that can enable the musician’s fans to be part owners of a song or an album.
The internet is inherently centralized, everything you do online can effectively be limited or de-platformed by those who control database servers. Web3 promises a decentralized alternative where we are all users, owners and developers.
This excerpt from fabric ventures sums it all: “Web 3.0 enables a future where distributed users and machines are able to interact with data, value and other counterparties via a substrate of peer-to-peer networks without the need for third parties. The result: a composable, human-centric & privacy preserving computing fabric for the next wave of the web’’
A Bitcoin blockchain node is orbiting the earth at 5 miles per second
Yes, you read that correctly. Launched into space in 2019 by a crypto wallet provider SpaceChain, the 1kg bitcoin node was launched into orbit aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Why Space? In its mission to build out a robust decentralized blockchain infrastructure high above earth, the wallet will be beyond any country’s jurisdiction and well above the reach of any physical hardware hacks.
Once installed aboard the International Space Station, the node will operate for about a year, securing multi-signature transactions through the ISS data feed.
SpaceChain sees its above earth nodes as a radical new way to make crypto transactions more secure and create a new ecosystem that connects millions of businesses, developers and consumers with easy access to aerospace and blockchain technology.
What happens after all 21 million bitcoin are mined?
Bitcoin halving: Embedded into the core of bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies economic models, halving ensures that coins will be issued at a steady and controlled rate. Such a controlled rate of monetary inflation is one of the main differences between cryptocurrencies and traditional fiat currencies, which have an infinite supply.
It is estimated that the halving cycle will continue until sometime in the year 2140, when all 21 million bitcoin will have been mined. There will only be 32 bitcoin halving events in total. Once all of this has occurred, there will be no more halvings and no new bitcoin created since the maximum supply will have been reached.
However, bitcoin transactions will continue to be pulled into blocks and processed. Bitcoin miners will also continue to be rewarded but likely only with transaction processing fees.
Key takeaways
- The term blockchain does not appear anywhere in the bitcoin original bitcoin white paper and was later on adopted by the early bitcoin community.
- DAO’s and Smart contracts can replace the traditional structure of a company.
- We have a bitcoin node in space!
- Miners may be paid with transaction fees after all bitcoins are mined.
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Author:
✍️ Head of Content @ Cindicator
📊 Certified Bitcoin Professional
🔐 Blockchain Chamber - Chapter President
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Disclaimer
Information in the article does not, nor does it purport to, constitute any form of professional investment advice, recommendation, or independent analysis.