Infographic Source: 101blockchains

Recommended: Benefits of Blockchain Technology

When There Was No Bitcoin

Blockchain started its journey back in 1991. But the developers and researchers failed to implement the blockchain practically. It was described by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in 1991. They aim to design a system where document timestamps could not be tampered with. But they were failed to implement the system.

Noble Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman said in 1999,

“The one thing that is missing is a reliable e-cash, whereby on the internet you can transfer funds from A to B without A knowing B or B knowing A. It would be one of the major forces for reducing the role of government.”

10 years later, Satoshi Nakamoto launches bitcoin blockchain with the aim of becoming the future of payments. There different blockchain generations.

1st Generation Blockchain

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto releases the white paper of bitcoin. Bitcoin is a blockchain based peer to peer payment system. Gradually, the bitcoin started its way to market. The people started taking it as a payment on different shop around the world.

Due to inflation in bitcoin price, it was not suitable for payment in daily routine. As time passes the new innovation were develop using blockchain technology. The blockchain of bitcoin is not scalable as the transaction speed was very low as 7 TPS.

During the innovation of 1st generation blockchain, one of the biggest bank in world Goldman Sachs built its own blockchain.

A deal of $1 Billion was signed between the Australian government and IBM.

The government of Dubai announces it will be the first blockchain powered government in the world.

The first bitcoin exchange was set up in 2010. The Bitcoin Pizza Guy, Lazlo Hanyecz, makes the first payment by paying 10,000 BTC for two pizzaz.

Silk Road was launched in February 2011. Bitcoin was used anonymously for illegal transactions. There were no proper rules and regulations.

Since 1st generation blockchain was open source people start making their own coins. During the time, LiteCoin and SwiftCoin appear on the scene with the aim to be the global currency of future.

In 2012, Ripple started its journey. Ripple introduced the concept of consensus among members of networks instead of using mining.

Bitcoin blockchain is also known as the 1st generation blockchain was failed to provide the users with efficiency. Furthermore, bitcoin was just a payment system. There was a need for a blockchain that solves the real world problems.

2nd Generation blockchain

Following the bitcoin, many other projects started their journey with blockchain. In 2013, a 19 years old boy Vitalik Buterin introduce the concept of smart contracts using blockchain technology.

The projects Ethereum gain global popularity as it was also providing the platform for developing decentralized applications. Ethereum provides the facility to the developer to develop the decentralized application using standard ERC20 token.

You can learn the Solidity programming language to get started with dapp development. The development of Ethereum blockchain provides a way for new projects to use blockchain technology. Ethereum blockchain is also known as 2nd generation blockchain.

Most of the projects listed on Coinmarketcap are using Ethereum platform. There is a huge Ethereum dapps list available in the open market aiming to provide the users with the solution to real-world problems.

Despite popularity, Ethereum blockchain is not up to mark. It has failed to provide the problem to the scalability issue. The transaction speed of Ethereum blockchain is 15 TPS.

When we look at the transaction speed of VISA, it is 24000 TPS. To achieve this transaction speed on a decentralized system, we need a more powerful blockchain. Although it is difficult to achieve that high transaction speed. But nothing is impossible. Different projects are working to achieve the as high transaction speed as VISA and other centralized systems.

Bitcoin hits $1,000 after a huge spike in price but instantly it falls back. China bans the banks in the country from trading bitcoin due to anonymity.

In 2015, NASDAQ starts a blockchain trial to enhance speed, efficiency and to lower cost. In the same year, Ethereum shifted to its own blockchain.

In July 2016, IBM started working on a blockchain innovation research center in Singapore. According to Accenture, in 2016 blockchain attained the 13.5% adaption rate within financial services. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM join together for testing blockchain service with clients.