I had no idea just how impressive and important the block chain and cryptocurrecies are going to be.

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Since joining steemit it’s really been my first introduction to this world, so I was totally naive to the whole thing. All I understood was that people talked about how permanent the block chain was.

I listened to this podcast the other day, as I’m a huge Tim Ferriss fan and follow most of this stuff. It has totally opened my understanding of all this and I often got overwhelmed just trying to wrap my head around things. I totally suggest it for anyone else who wants to better understand all this and needs a gentle introduction.

They used analogies and exampled to really put some things into perspective for me.

They often used the analogy that the information stored on the block chain was like a fly trapped in amber and as time goes on the layer would get thicker and thicker thus making it must harder to change it.

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They discussed the unused computing power and just how much computer effort goes into tracking block chain transactions. I had no idea every computer processing the transactions has a full history of all the other transactions on the block.

They discussed hash size and why some currency is better for smaller and faster transactions.

The one big thing that really blew my mind was when they suggested that block chains and cryptocurrency technology will really force the entire banking industry to change. They compared it how the internet has changed the newspaper, media, television, movie, music and entire entertainment industry. This was a comparison that really put things into perspective for me and opened my eyes!

This stuff is really huge!

It made me think of Kodak and my recent trip to Rochester. How Kodak had a gigantic complex there and supported so many other industries and much of the town, but when the technology changed and they couldn’t keep up they just got swept away.
It makes me wonder if this could actually happen to the tradition bank industry.

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The other thing that was totally mind blowing to me was the story of Satoshi Nakamoto and how no one knows who this is or if it’s a group of people. It’s just wild to think that someone would invent such a huge thing and disappear into “Galt’s Gulch” Even this reference appealed to me being a huge Atlas Shrugged fan!

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I am really pretty excited and intrigued by all this stuff now and really want to delve deeper and I was hoping for some advice on what to explore next. I’m really curious about more of the history and politics into all this. I’m hoping for something that continues to use metaphors and examples someone without a huge technology background can follow and understand.

I am really starting to understand how so many people seem almost evangelical in their support of this technology and I’m totally becoming a convert, this is game changing stuff!