Every historical period has its own key words. New terms or commonly used terms brought to the forefront by contingent situations or conditions. Crusade, Middle Ages, Plague, Lager, Reicht, Shoah, Tsunami, Social, Right, Left, .. all terms that beyond its meaning, identify a precise historical context. Blockchain is the new term that has recently risen to prominence, an Anglo-Saxon term that is increasingly in vogue, especially in this preliminary phase for "experts". Composed of 2 little words: "Block" and "Chain", "block chain" nothing simpler in the word, nothing more complex in reality.

The term itself does not define an event, a fashion or a trend but a real revolution on every level and as well as all revolutions starts from a discontent, a feeling of need, a desire for change that slowly mounts up to reach that level in which the phenomenon explodes. All phenomena forced by those who, from this revolution, are already thinking of how to make the most profit. But what is the Blockchain? To explain the Blockchain it is useful to make a premise that I get directly from a web article by Paul Barnard dated 02.01.2018 (1):

".. What is a payment? If you think about it, it is DATA transmitted from bank to bank, or other DATA passed to individuals on pieces of symbolic paper called banknotes. What is a legal identity? They are DATA in the possession of the State and printed on documents or cards. What is a medical record? They are medical DATA of the human body, today in hospital computers. What is an electoral vote? It is DATA that the citizen passes to the Authority and are counted. A contract of employment? DATA that are agreed between the owner and you depend on. What is an investment? It is DATA (numbers of money) that the citizen passes to someone of trust to enrich themselves. And so for hundreds of examples. DATA..."

Well, all these DATA inserted into the network via PC, Smartphone or other collection system end up in digital containers called BLOCK scattered all over the planet and connected one to the other in a CHAIN of information stored in a huge virtual archive book called LEDGER.

Each Blockchain will have its Ledger and in it will be contained all the encrypted info of the "associated" members. I wrote ".. every Blockchain will have its Ledger .." because the Blockchain system is not unique, but it can be different for every created Ledger. I also wrote "..info encrypted .." because each Ledger will have its own encryption and decryption algorithm of the information it contains. The strength of each Ledger and Blockchain therefore will be the amount of information contained and the degree of security implemented to protect that treasure. Yes, Treasure, because it's been a while since the Yellow Gold, the Black Gold, today the Virtual Data Gold is making its way. If you don't have a so clear idea, just look at the Facebook turnover that produces a huge value with the only Social of its more than 2 billion members.

Blockchain does not propose itself only as Social but it has the ambition to cover the whole world that revolves around the needs of its members, and all that world made of Data, cited by Barnard in his article, will have an even more immense value. And this value must be protected and safeguarded. And so here is the use of its own language (encrypted), of its own internal exchange currency (Virtual Coin), the use of a proper Statute of participation (Code of Ethics), the safeguarding of some guarantees and rights because also in the liquid democracy not all will be equal (Bonus), a real new concept of a Liquid State, a non-physical, geographical state, made of solid land, borders, natural resources, but a horizontal, ethereal, made up of members and followers, of Merchants and Clients gathered and held together in virtual enclosures where the boundaries are however very well defined. And here we insert a word that is not new but that in the future will probably be the new winning ground: COMUNITY.

All these new communities can give rise to future virtual city states. Aggregation clusters by affinity, each with a Value and an Appetitiveness. And as History teaches, there is no Value and Appetitiveness if there will be no attempts or ambitions of conquest and expansion. And here the Communities can exist, join forces or be conquered by Comunity more capable or unscrupulous where the loot will always and only be, the Data Treasure. Data for which, who will manage the algorithms, will manage the future.

It is therefore not difficult to think of such a future, where if you are not part of a community that will have bound you hands and feet you will be Nobody, like today where if you are not under a Sovereign State, you have no rights or guarantees and you are a bargaining chip for anyone. A future made of Blockchain, made of self-imposed chains to feel part of that virtual enclosure called Comunity that will become your home and your refuge. A future so digital that it could get out of hand for man to be delivered directly into the hands of an equally new term now more and more popular, the A.I., the infamous Artificial Intelligence, the engine of everything.

Franco Dal Col

1. http://paolobarnard.info/intervent...