Can we Finally Look at Blockchain and Bitcoin Separately?
With all the controversial talks surrounding Bitcoin, the use of blockchain for bigger tasks has been underexplore
Unless you have been living under a rock, the word blockchain wouldn’t have missed your attention over the past one year. Amongst all the hullaballoo that surrounds blockchain, Bitcoin has stood out most prominently. From the wild swings in Bitcoin prices to the emergence of multiple cryptocurrency wallets, the Bitcoin buzz has taken over the world and India is not behind.
But the emergence of Bitcoin has been bereft of challenges in the fastest-growing economy in the world. The Indian government has refused to accept the presence of Bitcoin and has openly said Bitcoin is “not legal tender”. During the Union Budget 2018-19, India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley clarified the government discourages the use of Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.
Governments across the world too have dismissed cryptocurrencies. China, which although houses the largest community of Bitcoin miners, has begun a crackdown on cryptocurrency websites citing instability as one of the reasons.
With all the controversy surrounding Bitcoin, the use of blockchain - the technology behind Bitcoins - has been left underexplored. While blockchain and Bitcoin have been synonymous for quite some time now, in reality the two are not quite so.
Blockchain technology houses a growing list of records with data stored in blocks. The technology offers to be an open distributed ledger, available for various parties to view. The Indian Government too has given its approval for the use of blockchain as a technology to develop infrastructure for various sectors.
Bitcoin on the other hand is a decentralized digital currency. The common threat between Bitcoin and Blockchain is that the Bitcoin transactions are saved via the blockchain technology.
Recently, Google said it would ban all advertisements relating to companies dealing in cryptocurrency from June 2018. An aggressive move such as this makes one wonder if the world can finally shift its attention to Blockchain, a technology that could change the way every activity is done, without worrying about the ambiguity that surrounds cryptocurrency.