Nick Hammond says, “Last week the high and rapidly changing price of bitcoin brought the digital currency to the top of the news, reaching an all-time trading high, at about $1,150 per coin.

It has since fluctuated considerably; the cause of this being statements and actions taken by the Chinese government. The clear majority of bitcoin trading (more than 95%) takes place in China, giving events there an enormous influence on the price.

The profile of bitcoin (powered by a blockchain network) has often masked the rising importance and relevance of the underlying blockchain technology, but this is changing rapidly.

One perspective is that the blockchain is the ‘second generation of the internet’.

According to an article published on Raconteur, ‘The first generation brought us the internet of information. The second generation, powered by blockchain, is bringing us the internet of value; a new, distributed platform that can help us reshape the world of business and transform the old order of human affairs for the better. But like the internet in the late-1980s and early-1990s, this is still early days.’

The initial paper regarding bitcoin (and blockchain) entitled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (2008) was authored by a mysterious individual, likely a pseudonym, going under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto”.

The importance of the blockchain: The second generation of the internet

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