Slashdot Mirror
IBM Reported To Be Developing Blockchain-Based Currency Transaction System
An anonymous reader writes: According to a Reuters source, IBM is working with the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks to develop a digital currency transaction system using the same blockchain technology that underpins Bitcoin — but which will deal with existing national currencies. The anonymous source says: "These coins will be part of the money supply...It's the same money, just not a dollar bill with a serial number on it, but a token that sits on this blockchain," Despite vocal community protest about the potential "co-opting" of a geographically-neutral cryptocurrency in favor of a centrally-controlled distributed transaction ledger, the IBM project, if true, is only one among hundreds seeking to leverage the blockchain for new transaction systems.
1) No evidence that the discoverer of Bitcoin is a genius;
2) No evidence that a single discoverer of Bitcoin even exists - it's as likely to be the product of or under the early auspices of a government agency;
2b) Either way, such agencies will have already spent much longer looking for flaws than any other organisation;
3) The technology underlying Bitcoin is hardly novel;
4) It's one proposed component of one technology used to record financial transactions. To suggest it will "underpin major parts of the world economy" is like suggesting that coffee "underpins" major parts of the world economy because the programmers who work for banks drink coffee.
(ok ok coffee does underpin the modern economy)