Evolution of blockchain
The blockchain technology is still in its early stages. It may take many years before it becomes mature and its potential has been fully explored. At the moment, there is no universally agreed way to classify generations for the technology.
In her book on blockchain, Melanie Swan defined blockchain 1.0 – 3.0. According to her view, these phases can be described as follows:
- Blockchain 1.0 refers to the cryptocurrency phase. During this phase, the blockchain applications focus mainly on cash payment, such as currency transfer, remittance, and digital payment systems.
- Blockchain 2.0 refers to the smart contract phase. During this phase, the blockchain applications focus in certain areas of the financial industry, for example, currency, financing, and security markets.
- Blockchain 3.0 refers to the blockchain technology being applied to areas beyond currency, financing, and security markets. For example, blockchain technology is utilized in areas such as non-profit organization causes, the health industry, the supply chain, manufacturing activities, and so on.
Some others divided the blockchain evolution into four generations:
- Blockchain 1.0: Bitcoin is the most prominent example. Financial transactions are executed based on distributed ledger technology (DLT). Cryptocurrency is used as cash for the internet.
- Blockchain 2.0: Ethereum is the most prominent example. The key concept is smart contracts, which are stored and executed on a blockchain.
- Blockchain 3.0: The keyword is Dapps (decentralized applications). Dapps use decentralized storage and decentralized communication. Unlike a smart contract, which only involves a backend or server-side code, a Dapp can have a frontend code, also called client-side code, for example, user interfaces, to interact with its backend code in a blockchain. In summary, Dapp is a frontend and has smart contracts.
- Blockchain 4.0: Blockchain platforms are being built to serve Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 refers to automation, enterprise resource planning, and the integration of different execution systems.
Regardless of how the generations are defined, it is certain that the growth of this technology is far from over. New ideas and implementations will be incorporated into the existing platforms to deal with challenges from real-life problems. In other words, blockchain technology will be nimble and is self-adjusted to be an enabler in resolving business problems.
Issuing a cryptocurrency or a token is more relevant to public blockchains. In the next two sections, we discuss bitcoin and Ethereum in detail.