Tangle and Blockchain: changing our Data Netorks
https://www.mycryptopedia.com/iota-explained/
Data is the new gold with companies spending billions of dollars to gather, sort, and utilize this data to better serve customers and ultimately to profit. The way in which this data moves is transforming and currently requires a great deal of computing power to not only store this data but also to send, receive, and make sense of all of it. Crypto-currencies are something I follow with a passion and I currently day trade them and while this serves as a hobby and (hopefully) profitable use of my time, the underlying technologies are where the real value lie. With the existence of the Internet when one sends and receives money, data, or any object there must be a way to verify that each person upholds his/her end of the bargain. This is the biggest obstacle for our society to transform into a completely virtual world whereby data flows without a middle-man obtaining our private information etc.. Blockchain has solved this problem to an extent.
Blockchain acts as a distributed ledger, whereby non middle man verifies the transactions online, but rather a system of connected machines each works hard solving algorithms to ensure that the system records the recorded transactions. This is a breakthrough technology which will allow the world to transition into a sharing, autonomous society whereby machines communicate with one another, thus allowing our daily lives to be faster, smoother, and ultimately better. However, blockchain typically requires a great amount of energy for the computing power. For example, Bitcoin currently uses as much energy as the entire country of Ireland. To solve this, there exists a 2nd generation of crypto-currencies which the IOTA Foundation and coin hope to achieve. The technology is similar to blockchain but “tangle” as it has been coined allows for infinite scalability, zero transaction fees, and micro-payments of both currency and data. This technology will change how data is used in supply-chains, how data is transported, and how machines will be able to communicate with each other.
As we have learned in class, the amount of data exchanging between companies, people, etc. can be infinitesimally small and almost infinitely large. Right now a great amount of computing power is used to exchange all of this virtual information. How we communicate over social media uses computing power and often times takes extended periods of time due to network congestions etc. Using our knowledge of certain properties such as the strong triadic closure property, local bridges, and the structural balance there are shortcuts that can cut down on the amount of energy we use while exchanging data. With this comes increased speed, transparency, and trust. Such is what blockchain, and ultimately tangle are looking to solve with real world applications extending beyond just its current means of storing value. Our social and general virtual network that exists today will also consist of a machine network whereby machines communicate with one another to hopefully create the biggest economic industry: the Internet of things.