Bitcoin is the tail that wags the dog

August 15, 2017 · 3 min read

Look around you. Think about the technology you use. How that's changed in the past ten years or even in the past five. Progress seems to be accelerating. What most of us do not realize is that the future is already here, and it has been here for quite some time.

One such technology is blockchain. Dubbed by some as the new internet — or internet 2.0 — the blockchain is touted as a revolutionary new kind of technology. While this doesn't mean much to most people, and most haven't even heard of blockchain, it's a revolution happening in plain sight. If you're reading this and scratching your head, the truth is you probably do know it, just under a different name: Bitcoin.

Blockchain was first introduced to the world by way of one of its many possible implementations. In 2008 a brilliant engineer, or group of engineers, published a white paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. The still unidentified author described an implementation of blockchain that created a true digital equivalent of cash — able to exchange hands digitally without being spent twice (i.e. copy/paste), and without using a third party like PayPal or Venmo.

Over the past 9 years, Bitcoin has grown in popularity and continues to be the most popular implementation of blockchain technology — but it is also becoming the tail that wags the dog. Yes, Bitcoin is the first and most popular blockchain-based application out there, but it is just one of many applications. What truly matters is the underlying technology: blockchain.

Over the next few weeks I will elaborate further on what blockchain is, how it can change the way we think about technology, and share some of the applications that aren't exclusive to cryptocurrencies — but have much broader implications for how technology is used.

Bitcoin is the tail that wags the dog

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