Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

25 Dec, 2019 Divesh Mishra

Crypto are either declared illegal or simply not accepted as currency almost in all the countries of the world. As a result, a major global exchange of Crypto remains in the dark. But as we have heard and as what practises remain: there is more honesty in the world of illegal than what is in the world of legal activities.

 

And that is where Blockchain comes into light. Like nuclear power, its immense strength can be used for good uses (nuclear energy) or bad uses (atom bomb).

Imagine holding a Rs 100 note in your hand. You may not remember from where you got that note or may even remember who gave you that note. Good. May be you got that note from a shop X. But do you know who gave that note to that shop X? Can you find out? Can you trace how many hands that note touched since it got printed in a note printing press of RBI? Impossible.

Now you are holding the Rs. 100 note in your hands with a certificate attached with it which says how many people actually owned that note since its printing. An authentic list where all those owners confirming that yes, at a given point of time they were the owners of that note. They cant deny because the certificate which you are holding in your hand along with that note carries their respective signatures. More than that, all of these respective owners have a copy of this certificate with them and the certificate keeps getting updated as and when the note changes hands.

This, then establishes the genuineness of that note.

This also rules out counterfeiting.

Sellers and buyers can find out whether anything was ever purchased out of that note.

Genuine dealers can find out whether the note was ever on the wrong hands.

Income Tax can find out that whenever it was needed, the tax was paid on that note.

Law Enforcement agencies can find out whether the note was ever in the hands of unlawful people.

So on and so forth.

In the physical world, it is only a pipe dream and would never become reality.

In the virtual world, this is already happening. The Open Ledger is the concept behind Crypto. Blockchain is the technology behind Crypto.

In the similar fashion, Blockchain can handle negotiable instruments, property documents and other such papers where each past and present hand which ever touched it is given a ledger of the history of documents. He sees it, signs (digitally) it and forwards it. The chain is never broken. The genuineness of the transaction is blocked and once done, can not be tampered with.

Welcome to the world of Crypto. Welcome to the world of Blockchain. Welcome to the world of Open Ledger System.