This really has little to do with Bitcoin. A distributed ledger maintained by mutually mistrustful parties is useful for some back-end problems. The Bank for International Settlements, MERS, and Depository Trust Corporation are all candidates for replacement, because they're all just neutral parties that run clearing houses.
What we've learned from Bitcoin is that blockchain technology is robust enough to strongly resist attacks. If it were profitably breakable, it would have been broken by now. That it hasn't been is quite impressive.
As a settlement system, it doesn't require "mining" - just enough mutually mistrustful players that no one can tamper with logged transactions.
What we've learned from Bitcoin is that blockchain technology is robust enough to strongly resist attacks. If it were profitably breakable, it would have been broken by now. That it hasn't been is quite impressive.
As a settlement system, it doesn't require "mining" - just enough mutually mistrustful players that no one can tamper with logged transactions.