By
Giuseppe Gori, CEO, Gorbyte, Inc.
Since
the advent of Bitcoin, over ten years ago, the cryptocurrency market
has been very active, but mostly speculative. Many new currencies
have been created, but not much has changed in their basic
conception. Some cryptocurrencies are pinned to the US dollar to
achieve stability, but may be susceptible to other problems.
Bitcoin
vs. USD Volatility (From: BuyBitcoinWorldwide)
We
should not be surprised that, after 10 years of Bitcoin, most current
fintech articles on cryptocurrencies consider blockchain technology
as a fait accompli. The common assumption is that not much will
change in the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), and the
cryptocurrency world, in the next few years.
However,
really disruptive changes are sudden. With the rate of acceleration
of today’s technology, change is unpredictable and its impact is
sometimes beyond expectations.
First-generation
crypto-networks, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum use leader-based
consensus mechanisms. These networks are decentralized: A “proved”
subset of their nodes, miners or verifiers, compete for a reward and
the winner is temporarily in charge of transaction verification,
block composition, and distribution of the current block to all other
nodes. These networks, after ten years of attempts, have not been
able to scale. Their currencies are volatile and are used for
speculation more than as a medium of exchange.
Distributed
applications are still waiting for faster, scalable networks.
Governments
are not happy about the trends towards anonymity of their users.
The
ability of users to securely handle their keys and write secure
applications is questionable.
Second-generation,
stochastic crypto-networks will cause a sudden change in public
blockchain technology by moving from decentralization to
distribution: What
DLT technology was supposed to be, but never was.
DLT technology was supposed to be, but never was.
Random
sessions in stochastic cryptonetworks
(©
G.Gori)
In
stochastic crypto-networks, every node has equal responsibility for
the verification of transactions, network security, and block
equalization.
These
networks will not need intermediaries and rewards. Their basic
transaction services will be free. More importantly, they will be
faster, scalable, secure, and able to support applications that
require the exchange of large amounts of data.
Stochastic
crypto-networks are described in my soon to be published book
“Reinventing the Blockchain”, with a foreword by George Gilder.
Stochastic crypto-networks, and their corresponding cryptocurrencies,
will have a marked impact on the banking and financial industry.
Stochastic
crypto-networks will disrupt financial services and provide the
opportunity for new services, creating non-volatile cryptocurrencies
and bypassing bank payment systems. Stochastic crypto-networks will
also disrupt distributed application development by providing a
simpler model for general blockchain applications.
Current
operating systems will morph into Distributed Operating Environments,
including personal wearable devices, corporate servers, autonomous
robots, and IoT devices, all cooperating to maintain current
replicated data securely and immediately available on any of these
systems.
Second-generation
cryptocurrencies will be non-volatile. Simple
movements of money will be free, just as
we enjoy many other free services when
subscribing
to
a plan for
accessing the
Internet.
They
will
be
an
effective means
of exchange with
the potential of
replacing
fiat currency:
People will be able to move money to
each other easily
and transparently without fees, just like moving cash, but with the
added advantage of traceability, which is an insurance against theft
and money laundering.
Payment
systems will be
disrupted.
Second-generation
cryptocurrencies will also
be
an effective store of value, because
a)
they will have no inherent inflation;
b)
prices, expressed in these currencies, will not
be volatile;
and
c)
people
will receive directly into
their wallets their
share of proceeds
from all
earnings by
the crypto-network.
For
the above
reasons everyone,
including
the world’s
unbanked,
will enjoy the use
of a
no-fee,
interest
bearing savings
account
(or
wallet) maintained
by their own tamper-proof personal
device: A
blockchain-registered device acting as a node of the crypto-network.
Such
accounts will be recorded on the blockchain on every network
device.
Each
device will be biometrically
paired
to its
user.
Users will not need to trust a bank, an
exchange
or an intermediary for
holding
their accounts.
In
periods of economic
growth and currency
demand,
new currency will be generated immediately
by
the crypto-network.
To
prevent this
new
currency infusion from
causing
artificial inflation,
increments
compensating for the
reduced value of the currency will be immediately accounted
in
each
user
wallet. These
will exactly
compensate
currency
owners
for the increased
currency in circulation.
All
users
will experience growth
in the nominal value of their wallet, but no
change in prices. In
other words, everyone’s standard of living will improve at the rate
of economic growth, and
in proportion to their savings, without
government or human interference.
Because
of the ability to react to changes in currency demand in a precise
and timely fashion, when
second-generation cryptocurrencies will be widely used, the cycles of
worldwide economic contraction
and expansion will also be a thing of the past.
Furthermore,
second-generation
cryptocurrencies will
not be deflationary.
While
today cryptocurrencies
are mostly
a speculative instrument, this
will end with second-generation cryptocurrencies, as
they automatically will
respond
to changes
in demand
to
maintain price stability.
In addition, their
short-term variations will be mathematically smoothed to avoid short
term speculation
by automatic means.
Daily
Volatility
(Forbes:
Bitcoin volatility by the
hour)
New
generation cryptocurrencies based on stochastic crypto-networks will
positively disrupt the cryptocurrency market and cause a
consolidation of the many types of cryptocurrencies in circulation
today. For example, most current cryptocurrencies using leader-based
consensus mechanisms (Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-Stake,
Proof-of-Capacity or proof of anything else), may remain only as
speculative instruments. These first-generation crypto-networks do
not respond to the expectations of cryptocurrency users, as users
still need to trust verifiers/producers for the maintenance of the
crypto-network.
With
stochastic crypto-networks, key management will be automatic and
transparent, providing users with preemptive and theoretically
absolute security. At the same time convenience will improve, as
users will not need to remember keys, IDs, passwords, or other codes.
Authentication
mechanisms will be transparent and will apply automatically, as the
user approaches or needs access to restricted areas and private
resources (buildings, vehicles, shops, events, accounts, etc.).
Cumbersome
mechanisms, such as two-factor authentication will become obsolete.
Personal information will not be required to establish identity:
Personal information will remain private and secure, as it will not
need to be transmitted. Private information will remain the property
of each individual. Already existing quantum-proof encryption
techniques will be standardized to replace current elliptic curve
cryptography.
The
newest biometric methods will be used for restoring one’s secure
environment when personal devices are lost, stolen or damaged.
Reputation
systems will allow people to create and expand their own personal
networks, including trading networks, social networks and a host of
other distributed services.
The
impact on banking will be multi-faceted. Probably the most important
aspect is that lending institutions using second-generation
cryptocurrencies will not be able to take advantage of fractional
banking. That will be a guarantee of currency integrity.
Currently
a bank can loan a quantity of money to a customer independently of
its reserves. However, cryptocurrency is uniquely traded and traced.
For cryptocurrency to be lent out it must exist and must have been
deposited in the lender’s account.
The
gradual disappearance of fractional banking will move the
responsibility for controlling the liquidity of currencies from
central banks to automatic crypto-network mechanisms.
Currently,
we rely on government economic
indicators for taking the pulse of the economy. We further rely on
humans in central banks evaluating those indicators and suggesting
corrective actions within a certain time frame.
Crypto-networks
will rely on a demand index calculated automatically. This is
determined by the cumulative effect of people and businesses
borrowing and repaying loans, from banks of anyone else, together
with all the transactions processed by currency exchanges worldwide.
This index, for each cryptocurrency, will be used by its native
crypto-network to automatically evaluate the need for new currency
and instantaneously issue new cryptocurrency when the economy is
expanding.
Summary
In
summary, the following will be important factors affecting banking:
- Security tokens, a corollary instrument created on a crypto-network over and above its native cryptocurrency, will continue to replace other forms of instruments for investments.
- Payments will not be any more an integral function of traditional banking.
- The FED and Central Banks will have a reduced influence on the economy, as new currency is automatically generated and distributed directly to users.
- Financial institutions will continue to evaluate and provide loans, but fractional banking will gradually disappear. They will be able to expand their services to customers by using virtual private blockchain networks; at the same time their customers will use public crypto-networks for communication, payments and other public services.
- New government regulations will likely be developed to regulate exchanges and new services available with second-generation cryptocurrencies.
- The KYC function provided by local institutions or by specialized companies will still be necessary for the initial distribution of new personal, blockchain-registered unique devices and for the provision of new special services.
The
projections presented in this article are based on the current design
of a stochastic crypto-network (GNodes). The disruption of
crypto-mining, banking and current cryptocurrencies will be some of
the most immediate side effects related to the fintech industry.
Society
will benefit by being able to count on a distributed digital
environment inherently secure, with verifiable contacts and reputable
trading partners, convenient and fast distributed applications and
many other services, making our lives simpler, safer, more creative
and more enjoyable.