What is the future for blockchain and cryptocurrency?

Fast forward to 2022 and you have Jaguar Land Rover using blockchain technology to help secure its supply chain and institutions like Sotheby’s and the Worldwide Fund for Nature dipping their toes into the world of NFTs.

“Blockchain technology really is a giant ledger, an Excel spreadsheet in the sky. Cryptocurrency is one usage of that spreadsheet. So for example if I've made a dollar or a token, at any point on that spreadsheet there would only ever be one representation of where that token was on that iteration. Person A would own it at one point, person B would own it here, person A’s friend would own it there.

“That is one example of what we call an NFT. There is only one version of that available on the spreadsheet at one time. So Blockchain can identify an individual element on that spreadsheet. Similarly, it is also able to identify iterative elements on that spreadsheet.

“So, if we were, by way of an analogy, in a business servicing aeroplanes and in a jungle in the middle of the Sahara or Congo. We need to check an airline part to fit the engine on this aircraft is legitimate or perhaps has come from a factory. How can we do that? With a blockchain timestamp, you can see everybody who has handled that piece of the airplane in the past, and you can validate that it has come from a certain factory.”

But for you or I is blockchain and cryptocurrency going to become part of our everyday lives? Paul thinks it is possible.

“Cryptocurrency is another application of this technology. The real-world fiduciary system is built on trust. We believe that a £10 note has value because other people believe it has value and cryptocurrency operates in a similar dynamic. We're now dealing with a decentralised network of people across the world who all believe in the system, much like people do physical cash.”

“Fast forward five years where you'd be able to just spend some of these mainstream currencies in a shop and buy your groceries, I believe it’s already happening. It is just an alternative way of making a digital transaction.

This is also now making waves in the art industry with digital pieces being sold for millions of pounds as NFTs. The artist Beeple’s Everydays – The First 5000 Days selling for an astronomical $69 million in March 2021. Bored Apes is the other side of the (crypto)coin where 10,000 NFTs of cartoon monkeys are being bought and sold for millions by the likes of Eminem and Justin Bieber.

“Bored Apes is such a small part of what's happening in this world. It grabbed so much attention which can be frustrating, but also part of the joy of it is that we're trying to educate people as well.

“I think for the NFT world, if we look at that in isolation, you've got these pictures and JPEGs of dogs and apes and heaven knows what. And then you've got truly fine art, of the likes sold at Digital Art Fair, which, if you've seen some of the work by Refik is truly spectacular and mesmerizing.

“Blockchain is being used not just to do the transaction, but also to validate and give provenance. It’s a central database that we can all look to that says 'so-and-so owns this'. By giving it provenance and saying ‘this is the actual one that is worth this much money’, you're tying an asset on a blockchain to a number.”

It certainly seems as though - whether being used to purchase a digital monkey or prove the origins of a part in a supply chain - the presence of these evolving digital technologies is going to grow far beyond the realm of the 'computer geeks'.