By Evans WOHEREM
Blockchain is the underlying technology behind Sitoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies. It provides a distributed ledger system through which all that participate in the system are bonded together, and so, through which they can maintain trust, as whatever each of the users of the nodes does is always duplicated on the systems of all others that are part of the network.
In other words, blockchain was originally used to create Bitcoin, but today, it has universal applicability. It can be used as the underlining technology that can assure trust in all online endeavours. It is not just an internet of information to highly trusted systems holding the world together, it is now an internet of values.
In fact, many new ways of exploiting or applying Blockchain technology have not even been invented. Many mind-blowing applications of the technology have not even been discovered. Some are now only merely being produced. The possibilities of what can, therefore, be unlocked are endless and revolutionary.
It, therefore, means that in playing to be a part of the IT powerhouses of the world, Africa needs to take Blockchain technology very seriously. Africa, at the organizational level, country level and continental level, must incorporate Blockchain in many of its existing and new systems. It will help to seriously elevate Africa’s use and participation in the world of IT, and thus, the development of Africa.
At the moment, it looks like the technology that would have the greatest impact on the world as we move through the 21st century on to the 22nd century. It is likely going to be at par, or even surpass AI, as well as social media, the internet of things, machine learning, robotics, etc.
Today, we rely on middlemen in handling the double-spending problem. In the world of information, we can send you a copy and still retain the original, which is dangerous when it comes to financial transactions. In the world of physical assets, it is important that we don’t retain whatever we send/transfer to you.
For example, if I have $1000 and send you $800, it is important that I will not continue to have the whole $1000, but $200. Blockchain can handle all the need for immutability that is needed, thus assuring trust even in the world of new electronic-based transactions. This is as a result of the fact that Blockchain maintains a common universal ledger.
We can thus use Blockchain to establish trust in most of our transactions in African economies. The middlemen, like banks, can be hacked or compromised, which is what they are facing most of the time these days. So, assets like music, videos, many, etc. can be stored and moved in a trusted manner through a blockchain provided distributed ledger system.
Blockchain allows for peer to peer transactions in a manner that assures trust, through the cryptography of a worldwide ledger. In Bitcoin, there are blockchain miners who compete by solving problems in order to create blocks for which they get paid. Whatever is created is interconnected with other computers or blocks in a manner that assists them to know what each other knows.
One of the implications of blockchain is that you can build smart contracts, that is, a contract that self-executes. It handles the enforcement, payment and confirmation of the transaction all at the same time, in a manner that cannot be changed, and so, in a manner that organizations or countries can use to assure trust and confidence in the system.
Blockchain can be used to build new payment systems, like the new Papps, new stock markets, new voter systems and democratic operations or protocols, new trade systems, and many other manners of digitizing relationships amongst Africans and their institutions.
With the Blockchain payment system, the payment and settlement occur at the same time. They occur as they are being transacted. There won’t be some days needed for the settlement to go through so that the payment will be consummated. Everything is done at the same time.
What does all this mean for the financial and other industries? Are they going to be replaced by a blockchain system? Are they all going to transmute into the blockchain using industries, in order not to be replaced? The possibility for all the foregoing happening is very high in today’s world.
According to Don Tapscott, author of the book, “Blockchain Revolution”, rather than Re-distribute wealth, we can pre-distribute it. That way, we will be democratising the way wealth is created in the first place. Don Tapscott opines that we can pre-distribute wealth in society by, for example, doing the following:
- Land titles can become immutable by underpinning them with Blockchain technology. That way nobody can hack it. This will create prosperity.
- Create a true sharing economy. Peers can come together to share assets. A Blockchain distributed application can remove the need for Uber, AirBnB, etc. and make peers be together without the “middlemen.”
- We can end the remittance rip off in which diasporans who send monies back home are ripped off. This can be remedied through a blockchain system in which you can use your smartphone to transfer the money such that the money is received by the recipient instantaneously. For example, through a blockchain app called Abra, it costs only 2% and takes just about 2 minutes to execute, transfers from country to country.
- We can take control of our digital identities. Today, we are not even in charge of our digital identities and footprints, but with blockchain, we can do so and move around with it wherever we go. This is because as you make digital footprints you leave some digital crumbs which some organisations out there use to create an image of you, the virtual you, which might remember more about you than you do of yourself. We often forget what we did previously in detail, but your virtual you will always remember and can be queried or interrogated. Some companies can create a virtual you in a BlackBox that travels with you in whatever you do online or wherever you go and keeps the details in the box that is you, that is your asset, and so that you can sell in the future. They use an Avatar to sweep all your data into your black box, which you can monetize and manage and control.
- You can control your intellectual rights assets for the values you have created. Again, this can remove the middlemen or intermediaries that rip creators of content off. For example, content creators like authors, musicians, actors, etc. are often ripped off.
The above are ways Blockchain can be used to get rid of intermediaries and create more wealth for all. There are numerous ways we can deploy Blockchain technology for particular areas of endeavours in Africa, to engender a revolution in technology innovation and adoption in Africa, as well as a revolution in economic development for all the countries of the continent.
***Dr. Evans Woherem is the Chairman of Digital Africa
