People in many industries are experimenting with brand-new ways to do things based on cryptocurrency and block chain technologies.
Technologists are talking about a brand-new press release from Prior Consultancy, widely disseminated online today, talking about Ian McLeod of Thomas Crown Art and his view that Ethereum (ETH) in particular is going to be a major mover in the art world.
For some time, Thomas Crown Art has been talking about how the problem of art forgery can be corrected by the transparency of the blockchain network. Specifically, though, the new press release talks about the use of “oracles” in conjunction with Ethereum to curate smart contracts in very important ways.
Oracles are outside entities that provide data to trigger execution of smart contracts on a blockchain. This is important because otherwise the blockchain can’t access outside data. Some explanations of oracles use the analogy of the ancient Greek oracles that divined things for humans – in a similar way, they argue, blockchain oracles “divine” the outside world for a blockchain system.
McLeod elaborates: “Using a blockchain to authenticate artwork is an ideal use-case for smart contracts. They provide the ability to store a permanent, immutable record of artwork at the point of creation which can be used to authenticate registered works. Oracles will further enhance this concept and lighten smart contracts’ work processes.”
There’s also a very interesting proposition in McLeod’s viewpoint as demonstrated in today’s release. Notably, McLeod believes that this art use case is going to lead Ethereum to take over the currently more popular Bitcoin.
“When Ethereum-based smart contracts are fed a robust and reliable information through oracles to make precise and correct judgements, Ethereum’s price will explode,” McLeod says. “We can expect Bitcoin to lose 50 per cent of its cryptocurrency market share to Ethereum, its nearest rival, within five years.”
Looking at the current cryptocurrency market, we can see that Bitcoin is the household name, and Ethereum is a distant second place. However, McLeod’s viewpoint has some credibility behind it in a sense. If these oracles and smart contract systems start to proliferate, we could see Ethereum taking quite a lot of wind out of Bitcoin’s sails (and sales.)
It’s important for crypto investors to look at the various ways that industries are embracing smart contracts. It could be the difference between one or the other major coin winning out – or it could be the difference between a thriving cryptocurrency market that lifts all boats, and one that sinks all ships, if governments and businesses do not continue to embrace the idea of the blockchain as a whole.
For instance, we reported on how some experts think that governments will see digital blockchain technologies as a rivalry and try to squash the growing cryptocurrency market. For now, keep an eye on these types of notices to better understand the use cases of crypto in various ‘real world’ markets.
