Today the whole world is talking about blockchain and a bunch of new terms that have sprung up around technological innovation and the development of the internet. However, many times these concepts are idealized or, on the contrary, demonized due to misinformation or ignorance, dissipating the true meaning of that concept. evolution.
Many will ask: “What is blockchain?”. For this there is a simple and Creole answer: they are un bunch of interconnected computers around the world that are continually downloading databases and validating that all this information matches on all computers at the same time. In this way, the veracity of the data that is being printed becomes incorruptible, because the more computers, the more difficult it is to violate security.
It is worth clarifying that the blockchain was invented to make possible cryptocurrencies, which is why it is monetized from the start. In addition to the possibility of creating new cryptocurrencies, there are several layers of services that allow it to be monetized: from mining to DeFi, insurance, loans, art, entertainment, or digital property, such as with the NFT’s.
The great advantage that web3 has, blockchain or internet of value -terms that coexist-, and the benefit it brings is the traceability of the data. Blockchain is not anonymous, it is rightly said to be pseudonymous. It is possible to know very well where the first transaction comes from because it allows tracing the route of the data and, as if it were an accounting book, shows the start and end of any operation. In this way, it also works to limit unethical uses of the internet.
The blockchain it is a type of database in which all interactions between users are stored in the form of transactions. These transactions are unalterable and are permanently recorded, which allows a history of all movements to be obtained. Thus, although in theory the anonymity If possible, it is extremely difficult and specialized cybersecurity knowledge is required to achieve it, since the slightest mistake means being discovered.
Obviously, there are those who find advantages in it and make a more controversial use of this technology, since the illusion of anonymity makes some users use cryptocurrencies to illegal activities. But it is a fact that comes to change many things and solve many others.
At an industry level, web3 is a cross technology, and sooner or later all industries will end up adopting it, as happened with the cloud. Companies that know how to use it well will take advantage of it because using it correctly technology It will always be beneficial and a differential for the company. Instead, misuse can become a sticking point.
The application of technologies in the development of products that are well oriented to the solution they want to offer, will always enhance any business.
If the internet revolutionized telecommunications, blockchain comes to revolutionize value transfers. It offers a network to exchange assets, which can be anything that has value and can be represented by a token or cryptocurrency, be it money, property rights, shares, digital goods, reputation in the form of recommendations, etc. Y protocols to guarantee interoperability, allowing to eliminate intermediaries and interact with others with the peace of mind of having security integrated from the base. But one of the most interesting attractions is the transparency given by the traceability that it can provide to all the parties involved in said interactions.
Like any technology, blockchain It has their advantages and disadvantages. For example: one of its great points against it is that it is very polluting. In particular, those that use “proof of work” such as Bitcoin or Ethereum require a lot of mathematical processing to maintain the security of transactions. This processing is expensive and consumes a lot of energy, which does not always come from renewable sources. However, there are different blockchains that seek to solve this and not all of them are excessive polluters.
However, we believe that until renewable energy is the norm, the blockchain must be used with great responsibility.
As we already mentioned, one of its advantages is that it is a technology prepared to dispense with intermediaries, because by continually validating the veracity of the information, facilitates legitimacy and security of transactions without the need for major intermediate processes and, consequently, minimizes costs. In turn, in the absence of a mediator who could exercise power, have information or capital and could use it for his own benefit, it generates a much more horizontal and even anarchic dynamic. An organized anarchism.
Precisely for this reason when we talk about the blockchain or internet of value, we refer to an internet that is much more focused on generating community. The internet is not going to change, nor are all projects going to be in blockchain, but it is going to bring many significant and positive changes when it comes to making decisions, exchanging assets or goods, and tracing operations.
How is it related to financial inclusion? blockchain it is one more tool to include people financially, however, the problem with this phenomenon lies in the hegemony of the states and taxes. The latter, and as deduced from the term, are something that is imposed on the population. Today the force is money. For this reason, this type of technology that has been collaborative since its foundation comes to change old paradigms, how to separate power from money and generate a rearrangement of interests, where everything is going to be much more oriented towards collaboration and not towards accumulation.
New ones are being created decentralized services where there is no private owner, government or central bank that can arbitrarily lock someone out, that’s where inclusion comes from. At the same time, systems are being designed that encourage (even monetarily) the participants to collaborate, build and improve the system they use and in which the benefits return to the users themselves, as if it were a kind of cooperative.
The decentralization of power is going to make the states have less intervention in the individual decisions of the people. We are the generation that is going to experience the separation of the state and the economy, that is going to be real financial inclusion. Today the State chooses who gives it power, but when the power of the economy belongs to the people, it will be when financial inclusion begins to take on another meaning.
Santiago Echazú and Pablo Carbajo
Co-Founder and Blockchain Advisor of Paisanos.io
by Santiago Echazú and Pablo Carbajo
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