Whither Blockchain?
Welcome
Is blockchain finally getting interesting? I guess it always has attracted some attention – if not as an investment at least as a generator of headlines.
Dear Reader,
Is blockchain finally getting interesting? I guess it always has attracted some attention – if not as an investment at least as a generator of headlines. Who could forget the Mount Gox bankruptcy [1] or Newsweek's unfortunate "unmasking" of a Bitcoin creator who turned out to be the wrong guy [2].
The value of a Bitcoin has compounded generously in recent years, and the people who got in early got lots of money (unless they lost track of their key [3]). The volatility is certainly insane; the cryptocurrency hit an all time high in December 2017, then lost two thirds of its value in two months, and then sprang back to about half of what it was in December. I'm not an economist, but it seems to me that when the price of anything jumps around that much, buying into it is a game of chance. One invests in Bitcoin the way one might "invest" in a lottery ticket.
Some of the shine is even off Bitcoin mining right now. The cottage industry that has developed around the task of finding Bitcoins using high-performance parallel computers is consuming insane amounts of energy, thus giving the once-innocuous digital currency an unexpectedly negative reputation with environmentalists [4].
But blockchain is more than just Bitcoin. Other recent developments are starting to reveal the real power behind this fast-evolving tech. Some leading jewelry companies, for instance, recently announced they would be using a blockchain-based ledger called Tracr to track and verify the authenticity of diamonds. Tracr is built on the IBM Blockchain platform, which is intended to let companies and industry groups build their own solutions around blockchain technology. The Hyperledger project, which is sponsored by the Linux Foundation, is building a similar collection of blockchain development tools that have found their way into a number of different initiatives, including the Greenstream project, which describes itself as "a blockchain disruptor focused on increasing efficiency and record keeping in the emerging Canadian legal cannabis industry."
Microsoft is developing the Coco framework as a platform for building blockchain solutions, and Amazon, Oracle, and other vendors are working on similar products. This new class of blockchain developer tools will let vendors and enterprise companies build their own applications to secure the supply chain and verify the authenticity of transactions. In the long run, watching the fortunes of this new breed of developer tools will tell you more about the direction of blockchain than following the wild fluctuations in the value of Bitcoin.
Joe Casad, Editor in Chief
Infos
- Wikipedia on Mt. Gox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox
- "After Newsweek Reveal, Man Insists He Isn't Bitcoin Creator: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/bitcoin-creator-denies-newsweek-story.html
- "I Forgot My PIN: An Epic Tale of Losing $30,000 in Bitcoin": https://www.wired.com/story/i-forgot-my-pin-an-epic-tale-of-losing-dollar30000-in-bitcoin/
- "Bitcoin's Energy Use Is Huge": https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/17/bitcoin-electricity-usage-huge-climate-cryptocurrency
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Canonical Bumps LTS Support to 12 years
If you're worried that your Ubuntu LTS release won't be supported long enough to last, Canonical has a surprise for you in the form of 12 years of security coverage.
-
Fedora 40 Beta Released Soon
With the official release of Fedora 40 coming in April, it's almost time to download the beta and see what's new.
-
New Pentesting Distribution to Compete with Kali Linux
SnoopGod is now available for your testing needs
-
Juno Computers Launches Another Linux Laptop
If you're looking for a powerhouse laptop that runs Ubuntu, the Juno Computers Neptune 17 v6 should be on your radar.
-
ZorinOS 17.1 Released, Includes Improved Windows App Support
If you need or desire to run Windows applications on Linux, there's one distribution intent on making that easier for you and its new release further improves that feature.
-
Linux Market Share Surpasses 4% for the First Time
Look out Windows and macOS, Linux is on the rise and has even topped ChromeOS to become the fourth most widely used OS around the globe.
-
KDE’s Plasma 6 Officially Available
KDE’s Plasma 6.0 "Megarelease" has happened, and it's brimming with new features, polish, and performance.
-
Latest Version of Tails Unleashed
Tails 6.0 is based on Debian 12 and includes GNOME 43.
-
KDE Announces New Slimbook V with Plenty of Power and KDE’s Plasma 6
If you're a fan of KDE Plasma, you'll be thrilled to hear they've announced a new Slimbook with an AMD CPU and the latest version of KDE Plasma desktop.
-
Monthly Sponsorship Includes Early Access to elementary OS 8
If you want to get a glimpse of what's in the pipeline for elementary OS 8, just set up a monthly sponsorship to help fund its continued existence.