In 2017, the largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin's price rose over 1,300 percent, and it has been swinging wildly this year, worrying regulatory agencies globally. Nicolas Cary, Co-founder and President of Blockchain, the largest blockchain firm globally, provides the technology that supports storing and transactions of Bitcoins. He spoke to BT’s Manu Kaushik over the phone, in the middle of a busy day at his London office.
Nicolas cary: We have raised $70 million from Google Ventures, Richard Branson, Lightspeed Venture Partners and a variety of other investors. We have entered the Indian market in partnership with a startup, Unocoin, based out of Bengaluru. We have partnered them to make it easier for Indians to get digital currencies like Bitcoin more quickly. We have been growing faster than ever.
Our company’s name is frequently confused with the core innovation that everyone is so excited about because of its disruptive potential. The technology that actually makes the transactions possible in digital currencies is known as blockchain technology. For the first time in human history we have a software that makes it possible for all people, regardless of where they are in the world, to faithfully execute secure economic transactions with each other using nothing but software. This means that individuals using a peer-to-peer network can send any type of secured value over the internet and it's just as easy as making a conference call.
A blockchain is giant spreadsheet in the cloud. Except instead of there being one copy of this ledger or spreadsheet, there are actually many copies, and those copies are distributed all over the world. When one of the ledgers gets updated with a transaction, meaning somebody moves value from one person to another, all the ledgers get instantly updated simultaneously.
This story is from the March 11, 2017 edition of Business Today.
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This story is from the March 11, 2017 edition of Business Today.
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