The arrival of the Whitepaper of Satoshi Nakamoto revolutionized the way we see the monetary system. The team came with an unexpected technology, making us live a Science Fiction fantasy.
And because it was such an innovative idea, it’s not a surprise that it is advancing so fast.
We are already in the third generation of blockchain, which is quite impressive. Each new era came with something that improved the previous features and added new ones to expand crypto usability.
And to see how much the crypto industry changed in just a little over a decade, let’s take a peek at the evolution of blockchain.
Blockchain 1.0
The first generation of blockchain appeared in 2009, and it was created to give people financial independence. Its decentralized ledger system technology led to the first cryptocurrency – Bitcoin, which still leads the crypto market.
Not only did it give people anonymity and autonomy, but it gave them the chance to be part of the team itself. The first blockchain came with the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm, which rewards users who offer to validate transactions.
However, it was far from perfect.
Not everybody had enough computer power to mine coins, the transaction fees were pretty high, and it couldn’t process more than six transactions per second.
Therefore, there was a lot of room for improvement.
Blockchain 2.0
The second generation of blockchain was introduced in 2015, with the apparition of Ethereum – a global, decentralized platform. That’s right. It wasn’t just about coins anymore.
Ethereum comes into play with decentralized applications (dApps), backed by smart contracts. Games, gambling, blogs, you name it. This generation came not just with financial security but also with data security, which is a big concern nowadays.
And as an improvement for the first version of the blockchain, Ethereum came with the Proof of Stake algorithm. As opposed to mining, users can be part of the validation team without needing substantial computational power. All they need to do is stake their coins and receive daily revenue depending on how much they contribute.
Therefore, it made this role more manageable and more environmentally friendly.
However, the transactions were still very slow – no more than 14 transactions per second. This is what kept this technology away from being utilized by a wider group of people.
Blockchain 3.0
In 2018, all of these inconveniences came to an end with the arrival of EOS.IO. Blockchain 3.0 solved both the scalability and the transaction cost nuisance. There are no fees for App users. And best of all – it can support up to 100k transactions per second.
Aside from that, this third-generation came with new features, like the possibility to recover your account once you lost it. Another significant improvement is the implementation of DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake), which gives every user the power to vote regarding what happens on the blockchain.
Conclusion
The continuous development of blockchain technology proves the power of innovative minds, alongside the power of empathy. Each new feature and improvement is created without losing the primary purpose’s focus – providing freedom and security for users.
Therefore, it makes sense why each update takes account of people’s needs and concerns. Each day came with new challenges, and the blockchain generations are far from the edge.