Imagining 2060: Blockchain and I

by Prithwiraj Sinha

I woke up today and looked through my window, the world hasn’t changed one bit from yesterday, or maybe it has! I need to lay down again because of my stiff back and my thoughts go spiraling down to what has transgressed over the last few decades.

I check my crypto wallet to see numbers I would have never thought were possible, some time back. It’s January 1st, 2060 and blockchain technology has changed the world in more ways than we could have ever imagined 40-50 years ago. I lay here in awe of the many lives blockchain and crypto has changed, including mine.

Blockchain is the tech. Bitcoin is merely the first mainstream manifestation of its potential.

Marc Kenigsberg, founder of Bitcoin Chaser

I fell in love with the technology and philosophy behind blockchain in the late 2010s. When I first got involved with crypto I thought I was late to the party, but looking back I realize we were still so early. At the time I mistook it for just another opportunity to make more money but little did I know that this piece of technology was going to disrupt almost every industry out there and change how we live our lives.

Bitcoin was launched at a time when a select few people and corporations had control over finance and information. This was a world where the rich were getting richer and the poor had no way to climb up the economic ladder. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies were a ray of hope that promised to level the playing field and give everyone a chance to have real ownership of their wealth, as well as an opportunity to create wealth. Many saw the opportunities this new technology presented and many acted on it. However, the use of blockchain technology went far beyond finance.

I am leaving my bed now to make myself a coffee and it makes me happy knowing exactly where the coffee beans I just used came from. This is possible because blockchain ledgers were used to verify that my coffee was acquired through fair trade. I am sitting in my living room now, getting my daily news and I am at peace, knowing the information has been authenticated using blockchain to make sure that it is accurate. Who would have thought this technology would change how we consume information.

I am an old man and have to take meds these days to keep myself going. I walk to my front door to find my meds in our mailbox. I know that these meds were brought to my doorsteps straight from the manufacturer as I remember having a conversation with my doctor about how they are using blockchain to trace and track every step of this process.

I am going out on my daily walk and as I walk down the street I notice that things don’t seem to have changed much on the outside, but I know full well that is not the case. Crazy how the world has changed over the years.

My house is connected to my phone, from the doorbell to the AC, to the lights in my basement and I know this isn’t some revolutionary technology that people have not seen before. However, such technology has had security concerns in the past as those used to be operated by a centralized network, but I can go to bed at night knowing that my network of devices has been secured using blockchain.

Oh, it has been a long day, or maybe my old age is getting to me, but it’s 8 PM and I am laying in bed thinking about this technology and industry that was considered experimental, had numerous speculators and was even labeled as a scam because of it being so closely related to finance in its early days. It puts a smile on my face, thinking about how ingrained it is in society and how it has changed the way the world operates.

I am thinking of the early days, the excitement it used to bring to the believers. I see what it has become now and thinking about the endless possibilities gets my heart racing to this day.

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