WTF is The Blockchain?

nless you’re hiding under the rock, I am sure you’d have heard of Bitcoins and Blockchain. After all, they are the trending and media’s favorite topics these days — the buzzwords of the year. Even the people who’ve never mined a cryptocurrency or understand how it works, are talking about it. I have more non-technical friends than technical ones. They have been bugging me for weeks to explain this new buzzword to them. I guess there are thousands out there who feel the same. And when that happens, there comes a time to write something to which everyone can point the other lost souls to — that’s the purpose of this post — written in plain english that any regular internet user understands.

By the way, I am curator of a weekly newsletter, Unmade, which delivers one idea from the future to your inboxes.

Blockchain: why do we even need something this complex?

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” — H. L. Mencken

Unlike every other post on the internet, instead of first defining the Blockchain, we’ll understand the problem it solves.

Imagine, Joe is your best friend. He is traveling overseas, and on the fifth day of his vacation, he calls you and says, “Dude, I need some money. I have run out of it.”

You reply, “Sending some right away,” and hung up.

You then call your account manager at your bank and tell him, “Please transfer $1000 from my account to Joe’s account.”

Your account manager replies, “Yes, sir.”

He opens up the register, checks your account balance to see if you have enough balance to transfer $1000 to Joe. Because you’re a rich man, you have plenty; thus, he makes an entry in the register like the following: