Bitcoin: Welcome to the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is profoundly altering everything around us, even the way we live. This revolution promises to create greater efficiencies in all industry sectors and to spectacularly maximize human wellbeing. However, for the Fourth Industrial Revolution to be successful, an open, borderless, payment protocol must be in place. This protocol is Bitcoin.

Also read: Bitcoin Is the Fuel We Need for the Industrial Internet of Things

Bitcoin’s Blockchain Is the Heart of Industry 4.0

The Fourth Industrial Revolution brings all-encompassing change at a magnitude humanity has never before experienced. Essentially, this revolution is changing humans.

As Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, put it, “One of the main features of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is that it does not change what we are doing, it changes us.”

The steam engine propelled the First Industrial Revolution. Then electricity, along with the assembly line and other mass production techniques, brought the second. Next, computer technology and microelectronics drove the Third Industrial Revolution.

Now, stunning innovations, which include Internet of Things (IoT), genetic engineering, 3D printing, artificial intelligence (AI), driverless vehicles, robotics and smart machines, bring the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0.

Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology are another key technological innovation. Indeed, as Schwab put it, “Blockchains are the heart of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

The impact of these new technologies is also affecting economies and industries dramatically. For example, Bitcoin’s advent has revealed how antiquated the banking system and fiat money are.

In fact, the emerging economic model makes economic orthodoxies obsolete. Debates about capitalism versus socialism or Keynesianism versus liberalism are no longer relevant.

To thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we require a radically new economic system. “We need a shift to a new system that will allow us to meet the basic needs of every human on the planet, that will live within the planetary means, that will be fairer, and that will be focused as its key goal, not on growth, per se, but on maximizing human wellbeing. And history tells us that a value shift is triggered by the creation of a new story about how we want to live,” Stewart Wallis says.

Bitcoin Is Critical to Shift to the New Economy Model

Experts recognize how critical Bitcoin and its blockchain technology are, to successfully shift to this new economic system the Fourth Industrial Revolution brings. In effect, “The blockchain is fast becoming a symbol of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” says Richard Kemp, principal, Kemp IT Law.

Moreover, Bitcoin’s key role is underscored by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation report, “Intelligent Assets Report: Unlocking the circular economy potential.” According to this report, intelligent assets are also a key feature of the fourth industrial revolution.

The Intelligent Assets Report cites Blockchain co-founder Nicolas Cary, who concludes: “For intelligent assets to create value in the circular economy the development of an open and global payment protocol is required.”

In this regard, Cary stresses the potential of Bitcoin and its blockchain technology as the solution because of Bitcoin’s capacity to perform frictionless and transparent financial transactions, without the intervention of intermediaries.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution certainly presents colossal challenges all around, and particularly in the financial systems. Coincidentally, Bitcoin and its blockchain technology are ideal for implementing the shift to the global, trustless, and open new economy.

Bitcoin can fuel this new economy by allowing millions of smart devices to perform transparent and frictionless financial transactions, without human intervention, in the IoT universe.

What are your thoughts on using Bitcoin as the primary currency for the Fourth Industrial Revolution? Let us know in the comments below!

Images Courtesy of Shuttrsock, World Economic Forum, and Christoph Roser at AllAboutLean.com under the free CC-BY-SA 4.0 license.

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