The previous articles introduced what the blockchain is, how it operates, and briefly described the consensus mechanism of the blockchain. In this article, I will explain the application value of the blockchain to you. .
Since the development of the blockchain itself is at an early stage, there are not many mature applications. My main purpose is to broaden your thinking and attract others. I hope you can get application inspiration from it and dig out more marketable applications for the blockchain. But need to remind you that the content mentioned in this article does not constitute any investment advice.
Digital currency application direction
Digital currency is the largest application type of blockchain. There are currently more than 1,500 types of digital currency in the market. Its rapidly growing market value in 2017 caught people off guard.
So, how to understand the concept of digital currency? In fact, you can simply understand it as a form of currency without sovereignty and community autonomy. We will leave the detailed introduction of this part to the next article.
In the article "How does the blockchain work?", we built a centralized accounting model, which can correspond to the current central bank-commercial bank model; the operation of digital currency usually relies on community autonomy. Yes, the so-called community autonomy means that the three roles of users, maintainers, and developers jointly determine the development of digital currency, which corresponds to the "consensus" we talked about in the previous article.
Let's first take a look at digital currencies, which usually have the following characteristics.
The total amount is transparent and open. The issuance of digital currency is stipulated in the white paper at the beginning of the creation of the project. The white paper is usually an expository document publicly released by a blockchain project, which briefly describes the purpose and vision of the project and the design blueprint. In the white paper, the total number of digital currencies issued by the project, and how much investors, users, and miners can obtain are all allocated in advance. The total amount of digital currency is also divided into two types, one is the total amount capped, the other is not capped.
Digital currency is slowly released. After allocating the quotas for different roles, digital currencies are often not issued all at once. Usually, the miners need to rely on "digging" to come out. This is what we called mining earlier. Provides a way for the slow release of digital currency.
Code execution rules. Since we have stipulated the total amount and the mechanism for the release of digital currency in the white paper, the content of the white paper will become the basic consensus of the entire community, so after the mainnet of the project is launched, the release of digital currency is no longer under human control, but in The code level reflects that the code will be responsible for controlling the release of digital currency, and the factors of human operation are removed here.
Basically, all public blockchain projects will have the above characteristics, which shows that the relationship between digital currency and blockchain is very close. In addition, in the field of blockchain, the operation of a project is accompanied by the generation of a new digital currency. This digital currency will become the basic token of the project, and other currencies may also be derived. <\/p>\n
Different from other application types of blockchain, digital currency is an asset that naturally has better liquidity, so it is more sensitive to ownership. <\/p>\n
For example, if "your credit card was stolen" and "your Weibo account was stolen", normal people would be nervous about the first situation. Therefore, the application of blockchain in digital currency, its "decentralization" and "non-tampering" characteristics are more epoch-making than others.
Digital asset direction
We talked about digital currency in the previous section, which can actually be extended to digital assets.
How to understand it? If the blockchain can be used as digital currency, then it can also be applied to any other assets, especially virtual assets.
Virtual assets generally include financial assets, game tokens, digital copyrights, domain names, \b user traffic, etc. Since virtual assets do not need to be linked to physical assets, it is more convenient to correspond to the blockchain. Its specific application form is reflected in supply chain finance and bill market.
Let's continue with the example. There is a very famous Canadian white-bearded uncle in the blockchain circle. He is basically a must-see for every meeting.
In short, the application he wants to do is called "conscience blockchain", which does not refer to the conscience of blockchain projects, but that he hopes to use blockchain technology to allow everyone to manage themselves. The way of self-management is right " Conscience" to evaluate and reward. People's conscience can be blockchainized, what else can't be tried?
His project is like this. For example, today I set myself a goal of running 10 kilometers. If I complete it, then I will get tokens on the system. If it is not completed, there will be a corresponding penalty mechanism. Uncle's project is also linked to the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations. His purpose is also very simple, that is, he hopes to make the world a better place through his actions. <\/p>\n
You see, on the blockchain, even "conscience" can be digitized, what else can't be digitized?
Let's take another example. A popular youth group in the past few years is called TF-Boys. There are three members in it. Many fans are actually separated from idols. There is no model called letting fans and idols add value together.
For example, we can allow each member of TF-Boys to issue their own blockchain points and hold them together with fans. In the future, according to the level of idol growth and popularity, idols can share the proceeds with fans.
Therefore, in addition to digital currency, digital assets are also an application direction of blockchain. The application form of digital assets is very similar to asset securitization (ABS), and interested readers can study it by themselves.
More mature application types
So what are the more mature applications of blockchain at present? In fact, sometimes we think too far, but ignore our feet. First of all, if any blockchain founding project is to survive, it must first solve the problem of money, that is, financing.
As we mentioned earlier, any blockchain project will basically generate a basic token, so what kind of financing model can satisfy both investors and project parties?
In fact, this financing model itself is a very mature application. ——The answer is ICO (Initial Coin Offering), which was banned by seven ministries last year.
Here, we will briefly introduce ICO from a technical point of view. The Chinese name of ICO is initial coin offering, also known as blockchain crowdfunding. This is a new financing model. Investors can use their Bitcoin\ b or other tokens invested \b in some blockchain founding projects.
After a blockchain project is launched, if you choose to launch an ICO, compared with traditional financing channels, the project party will raise funds in a very short time, and the tokens specified in the white paper will be put into the hands of investors at one time. , and the digital \b asset trading platform will be launched in a short period of time. <\/p>\n
The digital asset trading platform also has high liquidity, which provides early investors with exit conditions, so that the investment cycle of investors is greatly shortened and they can quickly withdraw.
For example, Mr. Ma holds 1 bitcoin and now participates in the ICO of a blockchain project named ABC. The ICO exchange ratio is 1:10,000, which means that Mr. Ma invests 1 bitcoin to the project party and will receive to 10,000 ABC tokens.
If the ABC token will be listed on the trading platform within a month, assuming that the price of ABC fluctuates more than 50%, then Mr. Ma's 10,000 ABC tokens can be traded for 1.5 bitcoins, Mr. Ma will earn 0.5 bitcoins, and He can withdraw from the project and participate in a new round of ICO again.
Although ICO technology provides a short-cycle and high-efficiency financing model for all blockchain projects, at the same time, ICO has also become the hardest hit area for pyramid schemes and insider trading.
The above examples illustrate the application mode of blockchain in virtual assets, and another high-yield field of virtual assets, the game field, is also the object of blockchain assimilation.
However, there is no particularly mature case yet. The more famous one is the Ethereum "cat raising" game that became popular in 2017, but I don't think this means that the blockchain has really stepped into the game circle, this is just its small Try a knife.
Just think, if your props in the game can be used in any other game, wouldn't it feel great. Although there are no phenomenal examples of games being assimilated by the blockchain, you can also think divergently and imagine some new blockchain game modes.
Of course, in addition to virtual assets, physical assets can also be applied on the blockchain, but the difficulties encountered at present are basically how to map physical assets with the data of the blockchain on the chain one by one.
This involves data notarization and other links, and it is much more difficult to implement than centralized applications. A typical example is the combination of blockchain and supply chain to solve the problem of information flow, capital flow, logistics, and the integration of "three streams".
In addition to physical assets and virtual assets, the most simple and direct application of blockchain is notarization and publicity, but only the "non-tamperable" feature of blockchain is used here.
Summarize
Through this article, I introduced you to some application directions of the blockchain. It includes the application of blockchain in digital currency and digital assets.
In this article, I do not exaggerate the blockchain, on the contrary, I think that the application scope of the blockchain is currently limited to the financial field. So, I would like to tell dear you that a rational view of the application of the blockchain can allow us to better apply the blockchain. So what other industries can be digitized using blockchain?