Blockchain: how this Bitcoin technology could change the world

Nicole Kobie reveals how a key piece of Bitcoin tech could change how we sign contracts, pay for taxis and even elect governments

Nicole Kobie

Bitcoin has seen an astonishing number of highs and lows in its brief life – a single bitcoin is worth about £165 at the time of writing, down from more than £820 in November 2013 – while a number of legal and security challenges mean it hasn’t yet broken into the mainstream for payments. But there’s one part of the Bitcoin story that could have more wide-reaching effects in our world than the financial side: the blockchain. “What’s interesting about Bitcoin isn’t the currency itself, but rather the underlying technology, the blockchain,” explained Primavera De Filippi, research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, speaking at Nesta’s FutureFest in London. “It’s the decentralised public ledger that relies on cryptography in order to ensure that every…

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PC Pro (Digital) - 1 Issue, July 2015

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