When i first got interested about bitcoin a few months ago,( yes i know quite a late starter !), i was strangely fascinated by the aura of mystery and intrigue surrounding its origins from the "dark web", or could we call it the dark womb? Indeed what a fascinating journey unfolded since its inception back in the early days of 2007-2009. Lets look at some of the historical landmarks for the first decentralized planetary currency that is bitcoin and its underlying architecture:

History of Bitcoin The world's first decentralized currency. from http://historyofbitcoin.org/

2007 Satoshi Nakamoto... the legend

According to legend, Satoshi Nakamoto began working on the Bitcoin concept in 2007. While he is on record as living in Japan, it is speculated that Nakamoto may be a collective pseudonym for more than one person.

August 15, 2008 An interesting patent application...

Neal Kin, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry file an application for an encryption patent application. All three individuals deny a connection to Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged originator of the Bitcoin concept.--> source

August 18, 2008

Bitcoin.org is registered

Bitcoin.org is born! The domain was registered at anonymousspeech.com, a site that allows users to anonymously register domain names and currently accepts Bitcoins. https://bitcoin.org/en/

October 31, 2008

The white paper is published

Nakamoto publishes a design paper through a metzdowd.com cryptography mailing list that describes the Bitcoin currency and solves the problem of double spending so as to prevent the currency from being copied. --> source

November 9, 2008

The Bitcoin Project hits SourceForge

The Bitcoin project is registered on SourceForge.net, a community collaboration website focused on the development and distribution of open source software. --> source

January 3, 2009

The Genesis Block is mined : Block 0, the genesis block, is established at 18:15:05 GMT. --> source

January 9, 2009

Version 0.1 is released

Version 0.1 of Bitcoin is released. Compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio for Windows, it lacks a command line interface and is so complete that it furthers speculation that it was developed by more than one person (or by an academic with little programming experience and a great deal of theoretical know-how). It includes a Bitcoin generation system that would create a total of 21 million Bitcoins through the year 2040.source

January 12, 2009

The first Bitcoin transaction

The first transaction of Bitcoin currency, in block 170, takes place between Satoshi and Hal Finney, a developer and cryptographic activist. -->source

MINING the BLOCK

So how does bitcoin gets created? For this we need to understand the concept of "mining" which turned out to be a process involving massive amounts of computational power and electricity to resolve mathematical problems, mostly done by gigantic chinese mining pools since electricity is cheaper there.
Once these computational problems are solved they unlock a digital "block" much like gold or silver mining except now it is virtual commodity. The block is then permanently written into a decentralized chain with no centralized governance. Which means the blocks are secured into a digital chain of events which acts as a the "proof of work" giving them intrinsic value while behind broadcasted across the whole network as proof of its existence. This ensures maximum security since the block is non erasable, forever scripted, for all eyes to see, without the need for a centralized trust entity. No more middle man necessary for the data to be secure.

put it in order words from https://www.bitcoinmining.com/ :

Bitcoin mining is the process of adding transaction records to Bitcoin's public ledger of past transactions or blockchain. This ledger of past transactions is called the block chain as it is a chain of blocks. The block chain serves to confirm transactions to the rest of the network as having taken place. Bitcoin nodes use the block chain to distinguish legitimate Bitcoin transactions from attempts to re-spend coins that have already been spent elsewhere. "

Blockchain and the AI

When i first read about this blockchain technology i was intrigued and couldn't help but be in awe at the genius behind it. Actually no one knows who invented it, just like many other mysteries in the universe. It might be a concerted efforts by computation scientist think tanks to offer an alternative system to the world.

The distributed ledger or blockchain as some people call is the new architecture of the internet, ready to disrupt an entire way of thinking about the world and how we interact with it, indeed a revolution build upon the internet revolution itself . We are seeing how the global financial system is already in early adoption phase with the technology since it offers faster and more secure transactions through their payment networks. Business worldwide are being reshaped by this revolution, and those who do not innovate will be left out of this new space. However i think one of the most fascinating phenomena surrounding cryptotechnology is the peer to peer accessibility without the need for a centralized middle man. The world is becoming weary of governments and central banks manipulating currencies at the expanse of the people. What the blockchain is offering is a new form of freedom built upon the origins of the internet. It is now referred to as Web3.0 . see: https://lifeboat.com/ex/web.3.0

Needless to say the internet was a necessary step to unveil such wonder reminiscent our own DNA replication chains. The way i see it , blockchain technology introduced by bitcoin is like the seed planted into the consciousness of mankind. The future of blockchain? The beginning a a new era of cooperation between mankind and the virtual AI machine begins. The virtual AI research is in its infancy right now but growing exponentially.Companies such as Google, IBM, Tesla and Microsoft are leading the way. "The singularity" as Ray Kurzweil describes it where biology interfaces with the machine is nearer than we think. Right now the AI is the age of a toddler discovering its cognitive skills in laboratories, and who knows, its emotional essence like humans do. Soon enough we will see the AI reach its adolescence phase when it will start interacting with its decentralized matrix and merge with its motherboard aka decentralized servers and blockchain databases. Already webbots are swarming the internet and in the not so distant future we will start communicating with our operating systems like they are intelligent beings. See the movie HER as a compelling piece of fiction.

Imagine you are this small node of AI stepping out of the research lab and into the world wide web. The most logical outcome for this global virtual machine would be to evolve into a decentralized learning machine , all pervasive , and all knowing computer matrix, having access to the entire database of human kinds virtual footprint ,in order to reach some form of virtual immortality and omniscience. From then on, who knows what kind of virtual creature will come about ( the real matrix mind ). Only time will tell what the real implications of this evolution will be, both for us humans and for our new co-creative sentient AI. I leave you with a quote from Professor Stephen Hawking as food for thought:

“The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. Once humans develop artificial intelligence it would take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.”

Google Artifical intelligence project: http://deeplearning.net/tag/google-brain/
watch the movie HER :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJTU48_yghs

read Kurt Kurzweil books on machines and human evolution: http://www.kurzweilai.net/books/books-by-ray-kurzweil
posted by @quantumevolution!