Someone asked me how Bitcoin stands next to other technological marvels of our recent history. In my view, these are the “big waves” of technological evolution that change everything on their path.
- UNIX: seminal open and accessible operating system used as one of the foundations to the ARPANET
- GPL: software licenses that allowed the development of technologies mostly used to make the Internet work as we know it.
- The Internet: “boxes and pipes” through which data flows on a global basis, mostly via integrity oriented protocols like TCP/IP.
- Email: instant write/send/read communications around the globe at a much lower cost.
- The Web (and Mozilla): allowed companies to accelerate their globalization speed, improve their branding and to create a set of new online services.
- Search engines: allowed to average Internet user to discover content and services online.
- Social networks: favored human relations and personal expression in the online environment (still only via text)
- Smartphones: selfies and user-generated content like photos and videos allowed the illiterate population to participate on social communities
- Video streaming: started to debunk TV and movie theaters from a corporate perspective. Also allowed the average user to produce rich content.
- Monetized user created content: audio, vídeo and instructional content (online courses) go mainstream to become no longer the means but the end activity of a large portion of developed societies.
- Video conferencing: evolved exponentially during the C-19 pandemics to become the foundation infrastructure for remote work that reshaped various layers of the global workforce
- Bitcoin: store of value which gave users the sense of independence from the established global banking system.
- AI: value creation is no longer a privilege of humans. Value can be created artificially by non-human entities.
- Source certificates for content: AI is becoming too good in generating deep fakes of all sorts. The only way to certify content from its original source is through digital certificates. Non-certified content would be automatically flagged as fake in the future. evidence