In the year 2018, Peter Van Valkenburgh, Director of Research at Coin Centeran independent non-profit organization, explained what bitcoin is in the “United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Hearing on Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology”.
From Cointelegraph en Español we review that explanation for being one of the clearest. Let’s see what he said back then:
What is Bitcoin and what does it do?
Peter Van Valkenburgh commented: “bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency of the world and it works thanks to the first public blockchain network of the world. What he does is simple: allows you to send and receive value, to and from anyone in the worldusing nothing more than a computer and internet connection”.
Then, the exhibitor added: “Why is it revolutionary? Because, unlike any other tool to send money over the Internet, works without the need to trust an intermediary. The lack of a corporation in the middle means that bitcoin is the world’s first public digital payment infrastructure. And by public I simply mean that it is available to all and not owned by any entity”.
before and after bitcoin
“We now have public infrastructure for information, for websites and for email: it’s called internet. But the only public payment infrastructure we have is cash, like paper money, and only works in face-to-face transactions”, he continued.
“Before bitcoin, if a person wanted to pay someone remotely by phone or Internet, could not use the public infrastructure, I had to trust a private bank to open your books and add a ledger entry that debits and credits the person you’re paying. And if they don’t both use the same bank, then there will be multiple banks and multiple ledger entries in between.
with bitcoin, ledger is public blockchain and anyone can add an entry to that ledger by transferring their bitcoin to someone else. And anyone, regardless of their nationality, race, religion, gender, sex or solvency; can absolutely free of charge, create a bitcoin address to receive payments digitally”.
“Bitcoin is the world’s first globally accessible public money. It’s not perfect, but it works.”
Van Valkenburgh reflected: “It is perfect? No, and neither was email when it was invented in 1972.
Bitcoin is not the best money in all respects. Not yet accepted everywhere, not often used for quoting prices and not always a stable store of value. Yet it is working, and the mere fact that works without trusted intermediaries is amazingis a great advance in computing and will be so important for freedom, prosperity and human flourishing as was the birth of the Internet”.
Public infrastructure vs. centralization and single point of failure
“Bitcoin is just the beginning”, he added. “If we can replace private payment infrastructure, then we can replace other currently private bottlenecks to human interaction.”.
Also expressed questions What: “Why should we want to build more public infrastructure? Why should we embrace public blockchains over corporate brokers? Why should we tolerate its inefficiencies and work to improve them? Why should we want the pioneers of this technology here in the United States and not flee abroad?”.
To then reply: “For one simple reason: because the corporate intermediaries that provide critical but privately owned computing infrastructures are becoming fewer, larger and more powerful. And their faults are getting more serious”.
Failures of the traditional system
Peter Van Vankelburgh was not short of arguments and exposed historical situations: “roughly half of all Americans, 143 million people, watched their exposed social security numbers to hackers due to a breach at Equifax.
The net SWIFT has transmitted hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent transactions due to bank member hacks in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ecuador and Russia. The FBI now suspects that the largest of these attacks was perpetrated by North Korea.
Corrupt Low-Level Employees of Indian Bank Punjab Nationalwere able to fraudulently certify messages with the SWIFT network and perpetrate $1.8 billion robbery. The largest electronic bank robbery in history, in fact, the largest bank robbery in history.
In October 2016, approximately 1.2 million devices connected to the Internet were hacked and turned into a botnet which, for several hours, made prominent websites unavailable in Europe and North America, including CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal”.
Internet of Things – IoT
“More and more physical machines are connecting to the Internet to increase their capabilities”, he highlighted. “They are connected through servers owned and maintained by private intermediaries and reliable, the so-called internet of things – IoT.
For example: St. Jude Hospital Pacemakers Hacked; Trendnet baby monitors have been hacked; Jeep jeeps have been hacked to the point where they could be remotely commanded and run off the road”.
Conclusions
To conclude, the exhibitor declared: “These vulnerabilities are inescapable in systems that have a single point of failure. It doesn’t matter if the point of failure is a corporation or a government. There should not be a single point of failure.
Similar bottlenecks existed before the Internet, sf you wanted to send a message, you had to go through one of three broadcasters or a handful of newspapers.
Private companies are essential, but no critical infrastructure should depend on a or two of them.
The Internet has eliminated single points of failure in the communications infrastructure. and ushered in a wave of competition among new media corporations building on its public rails.
Blockchains can similarly disintermediate critical payments and IoT infrastructure”.
He ended the exhibition alleging that “the technology still she’s not ready to answer all those questions today, but she’s our best hope and, as with the Internet in the 1990s, we need an innovation policy light-touch pro to ensure these innovations flourish in the United States for the benefit and safety of all Americans”.
We are in 2022 and nothing seems to have changed in relation to these conceptswhat is more, they continue to hold on to the persist intact the bitcoin network and adding projects.
There are more and more ATMs of cryptocurrencies in the world. El Salvador has declared bitcoin as legal tender.
Y, As of today, the Lightning Network has been stabilizeda second layer network to facilitate instant micropayments, whose volume of transactions has grown notably and currently has 4,000 bitcoin locked in its payment channels.
Disclaimer: The information and/or opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views or editorial line of Cointelegraph. The information set forth herein should not be taken as financial advice or investment recommendation. All investment and commercial movement involve risks and it is the responsibility of each person to do their due research before making an investment decision.
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