(10) BlockChain. An open discussion.

I am planning a series of posts to separate the Hype from the Reality. The hope is that Professionals and interested parties alike can openly discuss each point without resorting to handbags at 10 paces. Hopefully this will shed daylight on the subject and let us become better educated moving forward. Then maybe we can see what these technologies can really offer and where they belong. Who knows, we might all just learn something along the way.

Topics for discussion (feel free to chime in and add, change or delete as you see fit).

1. What is blockchain?

2. What is a smart contract?

3. What is a node?

4. What is Crypto Currency?

For each topic I am suggesting the usual who, what, where, why etc.

For example, the easy one, Cryptocurrency. It has been around so long that all these questions must have been answered. They should have been answered before it was deployed.

Why do we need Cryptocurrency?

We know the problem statement ‘Satoshi’ put out, but it doesn’t answer what ‘problem’ it was solving.

• Decentralized peer to peer vs. man in the middle/broker/banker?
• Speed?
• Cost?
• Control?
• Secure?
• Immutable?
• Untraceable?
• Scalable?
• Transparent?
• Nodes (not all nodes are the same)?
• Forks?
• Users?
• Value?
• Legislation?

So let us begin...