can money existe under a digital form ?
there can be several answers to this question
of course, everybody knows what happens when a credit card is used and when a money transfer is done on the Internet. in the end that's digital money moving around
but since 2009 there is another kind of digital money that is more interesting
and which an information technology and ideas level will probably take on a huge role and those are cryptographic currencies
the Bitcoin being an excellent example of those
the bitcoin is a currency created from scratch by using a peer-to-peer network on the 3rd of January 2009 to be precise based on ideas of a certain Satoshi Nakamoto
we don't know who Satoshi Nakamoto is
he described the protocol and he somehow managed to write the programs to make it function and get it running in 2009
we don't know who he is and that protocol has generated the currency now called the Bitcoin
whose market capitalization now amounts to 10 billion euros which is rather substantial
so the bitcoin is a real currency that only exists in a digital form there are no bitcoin  bills or bitcoin coins
it's something that only circulates over networks
in which functioning is based on a shared file also called a shared register and that is  the blockchain
how does the Bitcoin work that's a very interesting question
first, you have to understand how the blockchains  works the idea is rather simple
the idea is to say if everyone is alright with knowing who possesses bitcoins
those bitcoins don't need to be real it doesn't need to have a tangible form such as metallic or golden coins
whatever if everyone is okay to say this account possesses 10 bitcoins and that account possesses 10 and so on then it can work
at the beginning  it sound a bit nerd one can have a hard time believing it but that's the idea behind the Bitcoin
so there's a file called the blockchain which indicates precisely how much there is on any account
everybody is fine with it because the file telling how much that account possesses   that file is duplicated five thousand times in the case of the Bitcoin there are five thousand computers managing that file and they all agree they all have the exact same file
indicating the amount present on any account that creates some kind of trust between users
because nobody can cheat nobody can say I'll modify that account so then I will double the amount I have because I want to
nobody can create new bitcoins without it being intended by the general Bitcoin system and the trust generated by the share of information
that's the idea behind the blockchain and that idea can be generalized and can be used to do many other things
blockchains and particularly that of the Bitcoin are based on primitive cryptographic  primitive of what is called mathematical cryptography
and they are the ones ensuring the sturdiness of the data handled by the blockchain and it's reliability and its indestructibility
one remarkable feature is that the Bitcoin and the blockchain that had been developed since then are based on mathematics
actually, they are mathematics  mastery that has been achieved on cryptography protocols particularly on digital signature systems and on file hashing systems enables the protocol to function without anybody being able to cheat
because that's actually the problem nobody can be allowed to manipulate the protocol in order to take money for himself or  something else  if we talk about the Blockchain
so  this computer science maturity and digital science is  thanks to mathematics and mathematical cryptography
because they are the bitcoins and the blockchains foundation
the protocol involves digital signatures and cryptographic  signatures and that's absolutely essential the idea is as follows
when someone possesses bitcoins I'll talk about that Bitcoin case but similar things can generally be found in blockchains  when someone possesses bitcoins that person will have two information about the account on which the bitcoins are deposited  one information is the account number count  that number will be called the public key and the other information is the secret key
the secret key has the following property and that's a small mathematical miracle invented by cryptologists
it's that when performing a transaction it will be sent on the network with a signature so that private key will be used to sign the transaction
and only that person can sign action because he is the only one to hold the secret key
everybody that knows the account number will be able to verify he is indeed the person that signed
so those double key systems allow that rather miraculous thing
where everybody can verify that a signature is genuine and of course that's an essential point of the Bitcoin protocol
because money needs to be able to move from one account to another
so there needs to be some kind of action what we call transactions and those transactions will be signed every time by the account owners and nobody will be able to cheat
nobody will be able to sign a transaction saying from account A which is mine I'm going to transfer money to account B only I the A account owner will be able to sign transactions from account a towards another account
the blockchain can have many other applications and that's a surprising thing in the bitcoins history is that at the beginning it was believed that it could only be used to create cryptographic currencies
by the way there have been 700 currencies created based on the bitcoins model because the idea seems so interesting even brilliant
but for three or four years people have started to realize many other things could be done the idea is very simple
it's that what is used to store Bitcoin transactions is actually a file as hard as iron which is impossible to falsify and it can't be modified in the case of the Bitcoin it is duplicated 5000 times which means it is indestructible
totally  indestructible half of the earth could blow up there would still be copies of the bitcoins blockchain and that idea of an indestructible shared file which nobody can write without some kind of control being exerted by a set of other operators
meaning the other blockchains holders that allows to do many things
i'll give you two examples it's been considered it hasn't been done yet  to create a land register based on blockchains which means property information on cut out plots etc
would be written in a blockchain only some authorities would be allowed to write information on that blockchain when concluding sale information would be written not by erasing the previous information but by completing the previous one
telling that this plot has been sold and the owner has changed and once that information  has been duplicated and rendered  it becomes indestructible by the use of  cryptographic primitive
that information could access by anybody, by anyone plugging on the Internet will knows who possesses what and in a much more reliable manner than if it was managed by a centralized file
of course, the idea is that a central unit would manage all the information that is multiplied that creates a sort of mutual trust
including countries where there is corruption and all sorts of things where there is no land register  or if there is it is not reliable
another example of blockchain usage would be for schools and universities certificates
today when you want to find out if someone has a certificate it's almost impossible or else you need to contact and check with the University or the school who delivered that certificate
imagine a blockchain on which universities and schools would write down the certificates they deliver so that when trying to know whether that person has indeed been granted this certificate you only have to read the blockchain
so again the fact that the file is duplicated and that only certain operators are allowed to write on it  in this case schools and universities
of course, all that creates a sort of trust, a certainty and warranty of the information delivered by the system
so the blockchain technology would be a very interesting way of solving the who holds what certificate   problem
there are people offering new applications for the blockchain every day of that shared and guaranteed information that's the idea behind the blockchain a shared indestructible and guaranteed information and we realized that a lot of things can be done and that it can be useful for many different things
some sort of true digital revolution is happening right now and that's why banks but not only banks governmental organisms everybody's interested in the blockchain and wants to know how it works
and what new blockchain could be imagined to create new things that are considered impossible to do for now