According to the blockchain utility roadmap released by McKinsey, 2017-2021 will be the forming stage of the blockchain technology infrastructure. At present, many investment banks and technology companies in all corners of the world have accelerated their deployment of blockchain.

The mainstream view is that the core of the blockchain economy is not in technology, but in the reconstruction of business logic. Therefore, to a certain extent, blockchain is not only a technological revolution, but also a cognitive revolution.

Blockchain is not a new concept

The concept of Block chain can be traced back to October 2008. A mysterious person who claims to be "Satoshi Nakamoto" published a paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" in the forum, which was first proposed The concept of blockchain.

On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto dug the first block-the genesis block on a small server in Helsinki, Finland.

Almost with the birth of blockchain technology, Bitcoin became its first product to play a role. In the following years, Bitcoin has gradually become popular all over the world. In 2017, its crazy market made blockchain technology known to everyone.

The essence of blockchain: everyone is a "database"

The blockchain is essentially a distributed public ledger that connects various blocks into a chain. We can define it as a system that allows a group of interconnected computers to securely maintain a ledger together. Each computer is a database (server) without a third-party server.

Therefore, the blockchain is not a specific software, just like the meaning of the three words "database", it is a design idea of ​​a specific technology.

Just like the relationship between the TCP/IP protocol and ordinary people, ordinary people do not need to know what the underlying TCP/IP protocol of the Internet is, as long as they enjoy the services provided by the Internet.

Ordinary people have basically nothing to do with blockchain, unless they are preparing to engage in entrepreneurship in this area.

3 characteristics of blockchain

Compared with traditional centralized solutions, blockchain technology mainly has the following three characteristics:

The core idea of ​​blockchain is decentralization

In the blockchain system, the rights and obligations of any node are equal, and all nodes have the ability to vote with computing power, thus ensuring that the recognized result is the recognized result of more than half of the nodes. Even if it suffers a serious hacker attack, as long as the number of nodes controlled by the hacker does not exceed half of the total number of nodes in the world, the system can still operate normally and the data will not be tampered with.

The biggest disruption of the blockchain lies in the establishment of credit

In theory, blockchain technology can make WeChat Pay and Alipay no longer have value. "The Economist" made a vivid metaphor for the blockchain: simply put, it is "a machine that creates trust." Blockchain allows people to collaborate with each other without trusting each other and without a neutral central authority. Fighting counterfeit currency and financial fraud will not be needed in the future.

Collective maintenance of the blockchain can reduce costs

Under the centralized network system, the maintenance and operation of the system relies on the operation, maintenance and operation of platforms such as data centers, and the cost cannot be omitted. Anyone can participate in the nodes of the blockchain. While participating in the recording, each node also verifies the correctness of the results recorded by other nodes, which improves maintenance efficiency and reduces costs.

In short, the blockchain touches money, trust, and power, which are the fundamental foundations for human survival.

The development of blockchain has gone through 3 stages

The gestation period: 2009-2012, the economic form is dominated by Bitcoin and its industrial ecology.

Germination period: The period is 2012-2015. With Bitcoin entering the public eye, new wallet payment and remittance companies appeared, and the blockchain economy spread to the financial field. The underlying technology of the blockchain continues to innovate. Blockchain technology is stripped from the Bitcoin system.

Development period: In 2016, industry applications began to be explored, and a large number of blockchain startups appeared. The enthusiasm of ICO in 2017 has brought unprecedented attention to blockchain.

"Blockchain 2.0 era" is coming

No application, no matter what development, the development of the blockchain is divided into three stages of application 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.

Blockchain 1.0 application: programmable currency

Programmable currency is the digital currency represented by Bitcoin, but it is not the legal tender of any country or region, and no government authority provides guarantees for it.

Blockchain 2.0 application: programmable finance

Blockchain 2.0 applications have added the concept of "smart contracts" (using program algorithms instead of humans to execute contracts). This allows the blockchain to expand from the initial monetary system to the registration and transfer of equity, debt and property rights, the transaction and execution of securities and financial contracts, and even financial fields such as gambling and anti-counterfeiting.

Blockchain 3.0 Application: Programmable Society

Blockchain is the core of the Internet of Value, which can confirm, measure and store the property rights of information and bytes representing value in the Internet. It can not only record transactions in the financial industry, but almost anything that can be expressed in code form. Its application can be extended to any field in need, and then to the entire society.

At present, the application of blockchain has begun to surpass Bitcoin (blockchain 1.0), enter the era of blockchain 1.5, and transition to the financial sector (blockchain 2.0).

REITs CHAIN ​​is a global asset digital ecological public chain, in which individuals, enterprises, and physical assets can participate in depth. RETIs CHAIN ​​will become a super low-level service public chain supporting a large number of commercial-level applications. REITs CHAIN ​​protects users' privacy to the utmost extent, guarantees users' ownership of assets and the tracking and traceability of all transactions. This makes the information in the system unable to be forged or tampered. On the one hand, it avoids the risk of a large amount of personal information being stolen in the centralized system; on the other hand, it protects the security of user transactions and the security of assets. REITs CHAIN ​​supports smart contract functions. Smart contracts can run automatically without the intervention of third-party institutions, and cannot be tampered with or blocked. This ensures that the execution of all transactions in the system is fair, just, and open.

With the characteristics of high throughput, security, encryption, privacy, strong compatibility and scalability, it is an indispensable underlying protocol in promoting the commercial application of blockchain.

In the next 3-5 years, blockchain may surpass the financial field and enter the field of social notarization and intelligence (blockchain 3.0), including identity authentication, notarization, arbitration, auditing, domain names, logistics, medical care, mail, visas, voting In other fields, the scope of application is gradually expanded to the entire society, and blockchain technology will become a bottom-level protocol for the "Internet of Everything". And transition to a programmable society (blockchain 3.0 application).