I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent individual capable of understanding complex scientific ideas but I have just read 18 pages of articles in the January edition of Scientific American about Blockchain, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency and I will freely admit that I am left wondering what on Earth it was all about. It was one of those rather odd experiences where you read and understand most of the words but don’t get a grasp of the overall meaning. For example, I now know that a blockchain is a ‘distributed ledger’ and that Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that uses blockchain technology. I know that there are multiple cryptocurrencies and that Bitcoin involves people ‘mining’ to securely add new blocks of transactions to a blockchain. But I still don’t really have the foggiest idea what Bitcoin actually is and how one would go about using it (or even why really). I had hoped that the articles would give me just enough knowledge that I would understand the basics so that all of the media references to this emerging field might actually mean something to me but, alas, it seems that I still have a lot more work to do if I want to achieve this goal. Anyway, it probably doesn’t matter much. It is not as if understanding with Bitcoin is will increase the amount of wealth I have judging by the amount of cash I currently have in my pocket…
(and I’ll spending £1 of this at my Running Club tonight to pay my weekly fee!)
Tim O'Hare 