Sorry, I’m late.

At this point, if you haven’t heard the terms Blockchain, or Bitcoin you’ve done an admirable job staying off the grid. Personally, the topic comes up at nearly every party, and surfaces almost everytime I touch social media. So I thought I’d shed some light on the topic from my perspective. There is a data revolution happening that no one understands. The structure of data is changing.

For the past 4 months, I’ve been learning and researching about this incredible technology at school. So let’s get one thing clear Blockchain technology underlies all the crypto’this’ crypto’that’ hyped we’ve all seen – not Bitcoin. Blockchain technology will overtime impact every industry – not just the financial world. In September I decided Blockchains were worth diving into, so with the guidance of my professor and a group of students, I began looking at Blockchain technology. In the end, we created an extensive wiki entry – Blockchain: Beyond Bitcoin.

Blockchain: Beyond Bitcoin. – Click here to see the full Wikipedia entry.

Here’s a quote from the part I wrote – Section 3 Ethereum

“Ethereum, the blockchain platform is attempting to bring a whole blockchain product to market by creating two calls to action. First, for developers to make blockchain apps on their platform, and second, for consumers to use these apps knowing they are a part of a blockchain ecosystem with standards. This is where Ethereum starts to gain quantum leaps over BitCoin. Ethereum is building a platform from the ground up, getting consumers accustomed to their platform and developers accustomed to working within their standards and protocols.” – Blockchain: Beyond Bitcoin

The focus of our extensive ‘paper’ was on everything Blockchain related that had nothing to do with Bitcoin because we wanted people to understand this one idea – the structure of data is changing. Let me try to explain – instead of platforms requiring users to give excessive data, generating luxurious pools of centralized data (like on Facebook), platforms running on Blockchains only require the minimum amount of information for each action taken by the users. That’s my simplified explanation, but here is a video by Wired – it’s the best explanation video of blockchain.

Since every waking soul seems to be lured into the speculative world of cryptocurrencies and making their next million by trading this volatile asset, I thought it was time to draw some attention to what is really going on. A new digital world is being created, that means new data structure, new currencies, new platforms, new applications, new copyright enforcement, new land title systems, new healthcare records, new digital IDs, new digital security, new [insert anything digital]. This isn’t going to happen overnight, and chances are it’s going to take time for the new digital structure to fully integrate with mainstream life – but this is the beginning. That’s why everyone investing in anything touching this market is well aware of the risk, it’s the equivalent of investing during the internet boom. In the 1990s, few people predicted the Internet to be what it is today, with the applications that exist today, and the platform functionalities that thrived out of the boom.

To wrap this up, I just want to reiterate my point – a data revolution is happening, our digital world is changing from the inside out. So for those speculating, be wary – and if you’re willing to take on some risk think. Do you want to bank on the first ever app created (Bitcoin), on the platform facilitating the creation of applications (Ethereum), or something that hasn’t even been discovered yet (To Be Determined)? For those spectating, be ready for a new digital age where data is more structured, less volatile and cannot be deleted.