What is the blockchain? In essence, blockchain is nothing more than a new database technology.
Editor’s note: This article is from snowball, author Yu Feng, the original title is: “say one Said the blockchain and the nature of money.
Many people feel that using the blockchain as a database is an insult to this “great revolutionary technology.” What I want to say is that almost everything you enjoy in modern life is followed. There is a certain connection in the database. In this sense, the database is truly a revolutionary technology, and it has already been realized. It’s just that people who do database don’t like to hang around like people who are in the blockchain.
I don’t like bragging and I understand it very well. Look at Larry Ellison, who is already the tycoon of TOP5. Every day, I make a lot of money. I don’t need to find a leek to pick up. It’s really unnecessary to go out and brag.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, including the future central bank’s digital currency, is an application that runs on this database. Why is digital currency the most important application running on the blockchain database?
First, this kind of database is inherently suitable for accounting. Second, the scope of such a database is very narrow, and in addition to accounting, almost no suitable occasions can be found. The virus that spreads around the world with NoSQL is not at a level at all, almost the skill of the dragon.
Not to mention that it is completely useless. As a database technology suitable for a specific scenario, the blockchain is still useful in some places, such as finance, such as the government. In short, some have high requirements for non-destructible modification. The occasion.
So, how do you understand digital currency?
First, the blockchain-based digital currency gives us a new perspective on understanding currencies:
Currency is bookkeeping.
In essence, in an economic system, the only function of money existence is actually the two words: bookkeeping.
Li Si sold me 5 pounds of peaches. I gave Li four two copper plates. This copper plate can’t be eaten and can’t be drunk. The only value is that the 5 pounds of peaches are recorded. Logically speaking, tomorrow I will give Li Si five heads, and the two copper plates can be taken back, and the account will be flat.
If you can understand the concept that “the only value of money exists in accounting,” you can understand a lot.
The reason why you need to use currency to book accounts is because this method is easy to use and is not easy to damage, and the total amount is relatively controllable. Historically, precious metals such as gold, silver and copper have been used as bookkeeping chips. In essence, due to the relatively constant amount of mining, there are many gold and silver on the market.Will suddenly double or halve tomorrow. As a chip, this is more important.
So, can an adequate money supply make the economy more prosperous?
Also, can’t.
With sufficient chips to keep accounts, transactions in the market can become more convenient, transactions become more convenient, and the division of labor in the entire society becomes more refined and efficiency increases. This is one aspect of energy.
The so-called no, it means that the bookkeeping chips themselves have no use value. You throw a lot of gold into a tribe of primitive society, and you can’t let this tribe evolve into a capitalist society. Money is the lubricant of the economy, but if you don’t even have a bearing, there is nothing to lubricate.
The nomads ran into the middle of the original grabbed a lot of ingots and copper coins back, but did not do business with the Central Plains, what will eventually lead to? Well, except for inflation, nothing can be brought, so I have to bury the money in the whole can. This is not my own, I saw it in the Shenyang Financial Museum last time.
So, can digital currency replace fiat money?
In theory, because money is essentially a tool for bookkeeping, blockchain as a distributed database technology, of course, is likely to replace traditional accounting methods without considering cost and efficiency. of.
It’s like, for example, tomorrow’s central bank regulations do not allow banknotes to be circulated. Everyone uses Alipay and WeChat to pay. In fact, our currency is only in the database. As for this database, it is based on SQL is still a blockchain, just a technical detail.
However, in reality, this is a pseudo-issue.
Legal currency, which means the currency with the power of law enforcement to bless and escort. Money is used to trade in the real world. It cannot exist in a virtual digital space. And any transaction that wants to go smoothly must be protected by various laws and regulations in the real world.
Therefore, a digital currency that can replace traditional French currency is still a “legal currency”, but its underlying technology is no longer anti-counterfeiting ink, but cryptography.
Technical mad people want to use computing power instead of government-issued currency. The essence is similar to setting up a printing bank and printing their own special banknotes.
It’s just that there’s no one to care about you, but you have to take it out as “money” to spend… How big is the probability of success? Think for yourself.
Whether it exists in the SQL database, in the blockchain database, or in the bank’s cash pool, your RMB is still your RMB. In fact, its essence has not changed. The only change is storage and The technical means of circulation only.
So, based on the blockchain as the underlying technology, the blockchain renminbi (or whatever name) will replace the anti-counterfeiting ink or SQ.Is L the printed renminbi of the underlying technology? One day in the future, maybe.
But is this really heavy?
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