if you're a modern criminal chances are
you use it to buy guns drugs and even
launder money sounds dodgy but
high-profile institutions such as USA
and UNICEF have a different view they
think it could be a force for good
helping the poorest people in the world
it's a technology called blockchain a
global online database so anyone
anywhere with an internet connection can
use unlike traditional databases which
are owned by central figures like banks
and government a blockchain doesn't
belong to anyone and with an entire
network looking after it cheating the
system by faking documents transactions
and other information becomes near
impossible here's how it works
blockchain store information permantly
across the network of personal computers
it's not only decentralized the
information but distributes it too so
how can a multi-purpose online database
whose users include criminals work for
everyday use how does it stay relatively
hack-proof the answer is Brock changed
millions of users they make it difficult
for any one person to take down the
network or corrupt it the many people
who run the system use their own
personal computers to hold bundles of
records submitted by others the records
are known as blocks each block has a
timestamp
and a link to a previous block forming a
chronological chain it's like a giant
Google Doc with one key difference you
can view it and add to it but you can't
change the information that's already
there the blockchain enforces this by
using a form of math called cryptography
which means records can't be
counterfeited or altered by someone else
club chains most famous application is
Bitcoin it's a digital currency that is
created and held electronically and you
can send it to anyone whether you know
them or not
Bitcoin provides a level of annan
he's not seen in modern times that's
because unlike credit cards and PayPal
payments there are no middlemen such as
banks and financial institutions asking
for our personal information and home
address instead people from all over the
world move the digital money by
validating other people's Bitcoin
transactions earning a small fee in the
process where the blockchain comes in is
verifying the ownership of this digital
cash and making sure only one person is
claiming it as their own at a time banks
and businesses and rushing to adopt
blockchain database technology in a
survey of 308 senior executives at US
companies with 500 million dollars or
more in annual revenue Deloitte found
that 28% of respondents had invested
five million dollars or more in
blockchain technology ten percent had
invested ten million dollars or more but
why they spending so much money well to
save money of course when this study
looked into the data of eight of the
world's largest investment banks it
found that blockchain could save them
between eight and twelve billion dollars
every year but that five million dollar
investment doesn't sound so bad now but
it's not all good news for the big
players of course blockchain lowers the
barrier for entry into the banking
industry and that means FinTech startups
are popping up in pretty much every
market they operate it if banks and
companies can't keep up they're putting
their own survival at risk for the
consumer the future seems brighter with
more security less cost and better
experiences
yet blockchain could be the biggest
game-changer for the poorest in society
the technology is open to people living
in low-income countries or fragile
states at risk of economic collapse take
a farmer with a small plot of land which
is then flooded the paper copy of the
deeds to the his land is washed away
resulting in the farmer having no proof
of owning the land
or perhaps he does have a digital copy
on a government database but it is
erased altered or even destroyed in a
political coup if the farmer had filed
that deed on a blog chain he could have
avoided all these problems along with
speeding up the flow of cash and
providing a secure place to keep records
the benefits for the poorest in society
are enormous from protecting our
identities to running autonomous
vehicles to managing a world that is
increasingly dependent on the Internet
of Things the possibilities of
blockchain technology seem endless but
whether it lives up to its promise
remains to be seen
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