Hopefully you have made money with Bitcoin, and your life savings are safe from evil governments and corporations. No prying eyes, no third parties taking their cut, and no (or at least little) concerns about the unintended release of personal information. Simply submit a transaction into a global peer-to-peer network of “anonymous” participants, and “magically” the transaction will somehow be validated and logged with no chance for updates/deletes by connected participants in the network. Did you ever wonder about how this works, and the underlying technologies that comprise Bitcoin? How can a network based on unknown participants be secure and not full of fraudulent activity?
Or perhaps, now that you are set for life (At the time of this writing, 1 bitcoin = $1,250 USD, so hopefully you invested early!), you are wondering what else can be done with these technologies? Blockchains, consensus algorithms, cryptography, hashes, distributed ledgers, and “smart” contracts all sound interesting, but how can they be applied in your projects? And what are “ether” and “gas” anyway?
In addition, you may be part of one of the many organizations that are looking at this technology to see how it can increase security, information sharing, and improve the automation of business processes across a business network. Alternative crypto-currencies may be less interesting to you, but having business logic execute in an automated fashion across a network, with built-in security, consensus, and audit capabilities definitely sounds appealing. However, what use cases are appropriate? Is a “blockchain” all you need, or what other components and technologies should you be considering as part of the broader solution? When is a “blockchain” technology not appropriate?
All these questions mean it is time for another Innovation Series workshop! More details may be found here, but the “Beyond Bitcoin: What To Do with Blockchain?” workshop will focus on blockchain technologies, related use cases, and complementary components, and will even offer the chance to build a sample solution. Register today! Sign up for the Spanish version of the webinar here.
