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Whereas your double function within the weekend Journal (“The cult of crypto” and “The Wall Street whisperer”, September 11) on cryptocurrencies contained good insights, you missed a key level: blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, don’t exist. What does exist, nevertheless, is an immutable document of data flows between customers.
Identical to forwarding an e mail to somebody provides info to their inbox, sending a blockchain token will increase the steadiness contained in the recipient’s community tackle. Furthermore, a lot of the cryptography underpinning the safety of e mail know-how is equally utilized in blockchain methods. That stated, there may be one essential distinction: whilst you can hit “reply all” on an e mail, you can’t concurrently ship the identical blockchain-token to a number of individuals. This permits customers to authenticate distinctive info flows at cut-off dates, very like signing and courting a contract within the presence of a witness.
This will scale back transaction prices in lots of “paper-based” sectors comparable to insurance coverage, banking and regulation. Thus, the applying of blockchain know-how within the monetary trade is extra more likely to improve, somewhat than exchange it.
Niels Pedersen
Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan College, Manchester, UK
