Objectively speaking, the blockchain is still in the conceptual stage, and there is basically no application and innovation that can be implemented on a large scale. The concept is greater than the substance, and many people are making digital currency under the guise of blockchain, which is indeed the case. Even in the relatively mature Ethereum in the industry, although many programmers and geeks around the world are developing various applications based on Ethereum, such as games, payment, exchange, insurance, deposit certificates, etc., most of them are still in experiments. stage.
Can it be concluded that the blockchain has no future? In the future, blockchain may become an important technology and innovation like the Internet and the Internet of Things, which will reconstruct all aspects of our social economy and life culture. Blockchain is the Internet of Value, which is different from the current information Internet. The current Internet is flat, and it is difficult to carry the increasingly deep multi-dimensional digital world. Blockchain confirms the right and value. The combination of intelligence, cloud computing, big data, etc. may subvert and change our world; blockchain is a transformation of production relations, which may change the basic operating forms of companies, businesses and economies, such as shareholding, securities, investment and financing , means of production, etc. Blockchain is an underlying protocol, or a collection of technologies, such as IPFS , which may become a higher-level network independent of the Internet in the future.
So in general, the blockchain may have a profound impact on the real economy in the future, and it will undergo heavy transformation, but this is still very, very far away.
What is the essence of the blockchain, what are the applications of the blockchain, what are the advantages and disadvantages, and how should we view the blockchain? Gao Zelong, a senior blockchain expert and a technology columnist who has worked in the Internet for more than ten years, shared some knowledge about blockchain, and said that if there is any negligence or inappropriateness, corrections and exchanges are welcome.
The essence of blockchain is the beginning of the deep migration from the real world to the digital world, a higher stage of the integrated development of computers and humans, and an inevitable process of adjusting production relations to adapt to highly developed computers.
In the future, many fields such as production methods, lifestyles, social organization methods, and finance will enter the digital world more deeply. In the past, we were only in the era of "Internet +". Information, our language and even our thoughts and emotions will become part of the digital world.
While blockchain is still in its early days, it is already starting to eat the world. One of the biggest ways for the blockchain to swallow the world is to put all value assets on the chain, and then through the transparent, open, irreversible, and disintermediate trust characteristics of the blockchain, all value circulation can be completed instantly. Many people may not be able to understand this kind of transmission and transfer. The blockchain certainly cannot transmit real objects, but the transfer of property rights and value of such objects, whether in terms of speed or quality, has surpassed the current Internet. If artificial intelligence is to improve productivity and make production more efficient, blockchain is to change production relations and make the world more transparent and fair. Blockchain is a technical idea and a philosophical idea, which means that the future blockchain project will penetrate its distributed community management into more projects, which will profoundly change the original organizational model, production model, management model, and also Get involved in every aspect of your life.
There used to be a saying that Software is eating the world, but now Blockchain is eating the world. And this impact will be more profound and shape the world more profoundly. Because it will not only change the productive forces, but also the production relations.
Leaving aside the technical aspects, blockchain is a self-financing, self-organizing, self-evolving digital world, and the virtual world is another deep transformation of the traditional real world. It is inevitable for computers, the Internet and technology to reach a certain level. Just getting started.
The four core problems solved by the blockchain, and how to use the blockchain to build a completely honest and transparent credit system.
The blockchain mainly solves the problem of trust and security of transactions, so it proposes four technological innovations for this problem:
The first is called asymmetric encryption and authorization technology. The transaction information stored on the blockchain is public, but the account identity information is highly encrypted and can only be accessed with the authorization of the data owner, thus ensuring the data security and personal privacy.
The second is called distributed ledger, that is, transaction accounting is completed by multiple nodes distributed in different places, and each node records a complete account, so they can all participate in monitoring the legality of transactions, and can also jointly testify against it. Different from the traditional centralized bookkeeping scheme, no node can record accounts independently, thus avoiding the possibility of a single bookkeeper being controlled or bribed to keep false accounts. On the other hand, since there are enough accounting nodes, in theory, unless all nodes are destroyed, the account will not be lost, thus ensuring the security of the account data.
The third one is called smart contracts. Smart contracts are based on these credible data that cannot be tampered with and can automatically execute some pre-defined rules and terms. Taking insurance as an example, if everyone's information (including medical information and risk occurrence information) is true and credible, then it is easy to automate claims settlement in some standardized insurance products.
The last technical feature is called the consensus mechanism, which is how to reach a consensus among all accounting nodes to determine the validity of a record. This is not only a means of identification, but also a means of preventing tampering. The blockchain proposes four different consensus mechanisms, which are suitable for different application scenarios and strike a balance between efficiency and security. Taking Bitcoin as an example, the proof of work is used. Only when more than 51% of the accounting nodes in the entire network are controlled, it is possible to forge a non-existing record. When enough nodes join the blockchain, this is basically impossible, thus eliminating the possibility of fraud.
In 2011, the author published an article "Essential Credit System Construction to Promote Online Integrity Transactions", which introduced that Internet credit has both virtual and real attributes. elaborate. Today, when we talk about the impact of blockchain on future credit, and what blockchain credit will look like in the future, we still discuss these aspects.
The blockchain will be like the current Internet. In the next three to five years, the blockchain technology will be applied on a large scale in all aspects of production and life. The basic knowledge of the blockchain will become the life of our society. common sense. From a legal perspective, the court may have to deal with a large number of disputes in the "blockchain world". At the same time, as a tool and application, the blockchain has changed the existing legal system and processes in many aspects. The irreversible, It is impossible to tamper with, trace back, the voting mechanism of blockchain, and functional contracts may be applied to the legal field, and advanced timestamps can realize new notarization methods. Smart contracts can be used for arbitration, even a large number of simple contracts and agreements do not need to be arbitrated, but fully automated performance and fulfillment based on machines, arbitration or smart contract terms allow you to tailor every aspect of the process : Asset delivery, multi-party subject, enforcement, transparency and openness, etc., which further reduces uncertainty and allows parties to the litigation to have better control over the process. Part of the blockchain can achieve true "automatic judgment" without human intervention, or simply unable to intervene.
The most important thing about the blockchain is to solve the problem of intermediary credit. In the past, it was difficult for two people who did not know and trust each other to cooperate and had to rely on a third party. For example, for payment behavior, in the past, any kind of transfer must have an institution such as a bank or Alipay. However, through blockchain technology, Bitcoin is the first time that humans can complete the transfer behavior that can be trusted by both parties without the participation of any intermediaries. Guarantee, loan, credit, risk control, equity, income, and rating based on blockchain are all possible. The value Internet attribute of blockchain enables various economic activities to operate more efficiently. Whether it is ordinary people in the society or various economic people, they will be mapped to a "blockchain ID" to form a new moral system, evaluation standards and credit records.
The famous "Economist" magazine published a cover article titled "Thetrust machine" in October 2015, comparing the blockchain to a "trust machine". Blockchain solves the problem of ownership confirmation in the transaction process based on mathematical principles, and ensures that the system's recording, transmission, and storage results of value exchange activities are credible. From a certain level, credit is money, and money is credit; credit creates money; credit forms capital. Credit has only a single value, but money has a majority or general value, credit is only a claim to someone, but money is a claim to commodities in general; credit has only a specific indeterminate value, and money is have lasting value.
The blockchain may greatly promote the development of artificial intelligence, and the integration and development of big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and the Internet of Vehicles will accelerate. Smart contracts are expected to replace simple logic to achieve a large number of computer-controlled automated operations.
Artificial Intelligence (Artificial Intelligence), the English abbreviation is AI. It is a new technical science that studies and develops theories, methods, techniques and application systems for simulating, extending and expanding human intelligence. Artificial intelligence is a branch of computer science that attempts to understand the essence of intelligence and produce a new kind of intelligent machine that can respond in a similar way to human intelligence. Research in this field includes robotics, language recognition, image recognition, Natural language processing and expert systems, etc.
Blockchain technology is to use the block chain data structure to verify and store data, use distributed node consensus algorithm to generate and update data, use cryptography to ensure the security of data transmission and access, and use the intelligence composed of automated script codes. A new distributed infrastructure and computing paradigm that uses contracts to program and manipulate data. The blockchain was originally created as the underlying technology of Bitcoin. Since 2016, the blockchain has rapidly become the hottest black technology in the world. If the blockchain becomes a widely used protocol in the world, it may construct the following Generation Internet.
So what will the combination of blockchain and artificial intelligence bring, and what kind of scenarios will appear in blockchain + artificial intelligence? This is a very complicated proposition! First of all, the concepts, categories, and applications of artificial intelligence and blockchain are constantly upgrading and evolving over time. Blockchain now has concepts of 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, and artificial intelligence has been revised and upgraded to countless versions and categories since it was proposed in 1956. We only talk about blockchain-based artificial intelligence from the consensus mechanism, smart contracts, and community autonomy of blockchain.
The Byzantine Generals Problem is often mentioned in the blockchain field because its idea is related to the consistency of Bitcoin's ledger, that is, the consensus mechanism to be discussed. The consensus mechanism on the blockchain mainly solves the problem of who will construct the block and how to maintain the unity of the blockchain. The theoretical basis of this problem is Byzantine Fault-Tolerant (BFT). The consensus mechanism refers to the blockchain Algorithms for transactions to reach distributed consensus.
The consensus mechanism of the blockchain happens to function effectively in the exchange of information between humans and machines in Bitcoin's "connected world", enabling the emergence of more and more autonomous machine behaviors and leading to real Artificial intelligence, to achieve technological breakthroughs.
The consensus mechanism of monetary blockchains ( public chains ) such as Bitcoin , Litecoin, etc. is POW (proofofwork) proof of work, which is also what we call mining. The workload proof is that the miners continuously perform hash calculations while processing the transaction data ( the data is also hashed ) , and obtain a hash value whose first 23 bits are 0 , which becomes the nonce gold number. When a miner in the whole network hashes the nonce , he will publish the block he has packaged. After receiving the block verification block, other nodes will agree that the block has been connected to the blockchain, and then Continue with the packing and hashing of the next block. In this process, Satoshi Nakamoto sacrificed part of the final consistency through the competition of computing power ( because there will be forks ) and needs to wait for multiple confirmations, but this simple and violent method guarantees the entire block. The legitimacy of the chain system, and the robustness of the blockchain system is improved to the extreme. Even if there is only one node running in the entire network, the blockchain system will continue to run. Finally , POW also fully improves the security of the blockchain system. Relying on the 51% attack theory to destroy the blockchain system is a method that only governments or lunatics can take.
It is still the most basic consensus. From the Byzantine fault tolerance mechanism of PBFT and POW, various consensuses have been evolved, such as the POS endurance mechanism, the DPOS voting mechanism, the PaftRaft algorithm mechanism and so on. Smart contracts and consensus mechanisms overlap and overlap to some extent. Smart contracts, in essence, work like the if-then statements of other computer programs. Smart contracts simply interact with real-world assets in this way. When a pre-programmed condition is triggered, the smart contract executes the corresponding contract terms.
Smart contracts were proposed by legal scholar Nick Szabo . He mentioned the idea of smart contracts in several articles published on his website. He defines it as follows: "A smart contract is a set of digitally defined promises (promises), including agreements on which contract participants can execute those promises." mutual) rights and obligations. These commitments define the nature and purpose of the contract.
Take a sales contract as a typical example. The seller promises to send the goods, and the buyer promises to pay a reasonable payment. The potential of smart contracts goes beyond simply transferring money, we are entering an era where computing and connectivity are ubiquitous, colloquially, the Internet of Things. The door lock of a car or a house can be opened by a smart contract connected to the Internet of Things. Physical entities are able to retrieve information from and send information to the Internet/IoT, and they can also control their own use through software (this may sound cryptic), which allows us to build what Saab refers to as embedded Contracts (embedded contracts).
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (not referring to The DAO specifically ) and community attributes, this is relatively less discussed so far, but compared with purely technical concepts such as cryptography, distributed ledgers, and point-to-point transmission In terms of philosophical, sociological, and psychological attributes, it is another layer higher than consensus mechanisms and smart contracts. It is believed that it will play a role in the integration of blockchain and artificial intelligence from different perspectives.
The blockchain solves the problem of transmitting trusted information and value over untrusted channels, while the consensus mechanism solves the problem of how the blockchain can achieve consistency in distributed scenarios. The consensus mechanism solves the problem of decentralization. It solves the problem of mutual trust between nodes; smart contracts are closer to reality and extend to social life and business, which may allow machines to participate in more "judgments" and "executions" that humans could complete before; community and autonomy also allow the block Chains lead to infinite conjectures. "Voting", "trust", "commitment", "collaboration", "judgment", etc. are originally human consciousness or thinking, and the blockchain has it at the same time.
As a great information technology innovation, blockchain will provide human beings with high-precision modulation on the quality and authenticity of information. When our big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, robots, etc. are more and more, and are connected to a network that can communicate with each other, different programs in order to achieve their (and possibly their) goals, digital intelligence It will be required to transmit on the network, conduct transactions, and realize thinking, many of which can be managed automatically by the blockchain.
The blockchain is currently in chaos, and the "pseudo-blockchain" and "money-misappropriation blockchain" blockchains are prevalent. However, after the bubble bursts, the market will automatically return to rationality, and there may be a large number of applications that actually land.
The blockchain is currently in a very early stage, and because it is very early, it is very confusing. Because of the myth of Bitcoin, a large number of people who do not know how to do it flock to this field, many of them doing pyramid schemes and doing all kinds of illegal activities, which disrupts the normal research and development of the industry.
The current uncertainty of blockchain has many aspects, mainly including the following aspects. First, there are a large number of digital currency projects; The actual value and application, and even a lot of pyramid schemes and illegal fundraising, endanger the real economy of Chinese society and the normal financial order; 3. The blockchain itself is still in the conceptual stage, and the Internet, traditional corporate giants, and various start-ups are actively Exploration and practice, there will be various uncertain results when it is actually deployed; 4. There are also many disputes in the technology of blockchain itself, and it may be transformed and upgraded in various ways. The original blockchain is Bitcoin. The underlying technology, with various research and development, the blockchain will have multiple branches. Of course, because it is a new thing, there will be a lot of uncertainty, just like the Internet ten years ago, it is difficult for people to predict what things and phenomena will happen.
From a purely professional academic point of view, for example, the smart contract of the blockchain itself is also uncertain. For example, the contract may have loopholes that can transfer TOKEN, but cannot be recognized by society. Machine-based contracts cannot be undone, but in real life, these things can be undone or interrupted by a centralized system. Smart contracts are inherently full of risks and uncertainties, and they can only bear the risks themselves.
The current popularity of the blockchain may really be like a "flash in the pan", heading for a period of decline. But such a decline does not mean the end. Although the hot blockchain market does indeed have a big bubble, if the bubble is squeezed, the essence will remain in the end, just like the Internet 20 years ago. At that time The Internet of China is also a huge bubble, but after the bubble burst, great companies such as Sina, Tencent, Alibaba, NetEase, Didi Chuxing, and JD.com emerged.
We also have to admit that the value of blockchain, its efficient, transparent and secure features can be applied to many fields, such as finance, charity, supply chain and Internet of Things, etc., which may change the global future technological innovation. Especially in the financial field, there are a large number of information intermediaries in the industrial chain, which greatly slows down the operating efficiency of the system, and the blockchain technically eliminates the role of the middleman, thereby improving the overall operating efficiency. For example, blockchain can bring huge benefits to industries such as cross-border payment, financial credit reporting, and stock trading. It can increase the efficiency of data flow, reduce costs, and ensure the trust of all parties in the transaction chain in the underlying assets. In the long run, it will bring great changes to all major industries.
In the next two decades, the impact of blockchain and related technologies on the world is likely to be as profound as the impact of the Internet in the past two decades. Blockchain will open the door to new financial models that can drastically reduce costs, increase efficiency, fundamentally improve the financial system, and disrupt many existing business models.
Blockchain is more about empowerment, so that many small and medium-sized enterprises and scattered entrepreneurs who want to do great things can quickly build their own ecosystem and value system with the help of blockchain. Under such circumstances, the generation of TOKEN , coordination, circulation, contribution, voting is very meaningful, and people will need a lot of digital assets in the future.
It is expected that the blockchain can move forward steadily, become more standardized under the supervision of the government, benefit everyone, and become an important boosting force for China's economic development!