Humanity has developed civilization while solving the inconvenient. At the center were technology and science. New technology combined with information and communication is advancing human civilization by transforming it into an unexperienced world. According to the Hype Cycle curve presented by Gartner, an IT market research firm, many of the digital technologies that are driving the change of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are currently at the’peak peak’ stage. The fact that a technology is at the peak of expectations is the state with the highest expectations for the use of the technology. The fact that there are many applicable technologies means that the technology has a great influence on the development of mankind. At the present moment, when the influence of technology is increasing, it is necessary to prepare for it by knowing the representative technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and predicting the changes caused by them.
Representative technologies of the 4th industrial revolution include artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and data, and they are called ABCD after the first letter.
-A: Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the core of the core technologies of the 4th industrial revolution. If ABCD technology is compared to the components of the human body, artificial intelligence corresponds to the brain and nerves, and commands all components such as motion and judgment. AI is human learning ability, reasoning ability, perceptual ability, and other artificially implemented computer programs or computer systems including them. It is also an infrastructure technology. The impact of artificial intelligence technology, which is currently developing rapidly, on humanity is scary even to imagine. As advanced artificial intelligence technologies gradually penetrate into the human realm, not only jobs but also’human dignity’ can face a threat.
-B: Blockchain
Blockchain corresponds to muscles among the components of the human body, and supports organic coupling and stable linkage between components. Blockchain literally means’connecting blocks with a chain’, a technology that sends transaction details (blocks) to all users participating in a transaction, and prevents data forgery or hacking by comparing it with all users’ blocks each time a transaction occurs. to be. It is mainly used in some areas such as cryptocurrency, but in the future, the application area will be expanded to various areas such as business and personal transactions. Cryptocurrency uses a variety of time indication methods, such as proof-of-work or proof-of-stake, to avoid adding time-stamped transactions by untrusted third parties to the blockchain. This makes it possible for anyone to easily avoid the problem of double-paid money. Basically, the spread of blockchain technology will change the centralized organizational structure or business in which the host centrally controls and manages everything into a decentralized form in which rights and information are divided and controlled to all users or participants.
-C: Cloud Computing
The cloud corresponds to the skeleton in the human body structure, composes the shape of the entire system, and protects the detailed components. Cloud is a technology that processes information not with one’s own computer, but with another computer connected to the Internet. The purpose of using the cloud by companies or individuals can be largely considered in terms of cost and effectiveness. It is difficult for individuals or companies to retain all their information in a data processing environment that is moving from images or texts to moving images and convergence mass data. In the future, numerous individuals and companies will be willing to pay for this information to be stored and managed by specialized cloud companies.
In terms of effectiveness, information held in an internal storage device has limitations in the location or environment in which it can be used. However, the cloud provides an access environment where necessary information can be easily utilized anytime, anywhere. However, clouding is highly centralized. So it is inefficient and slow. In order to solve this problem, IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) has appeared. The feature of IPFS is a faster, more secure and open network realized through peer-to-peer communication of nodes without a centralized server. In the future, it is worth paying attention to the competition between clouding and IPFS, a distributed data processing method.
-D: Data
The data corresponds to blood among the components of the human body. Data is a source of nutrition (innovation) by interconnecting different technologies, i.e. components. The power of data lies in how much and how meaningful it is. Algorithms can be said to be a set of operating principles that output desired result values ​​according to rules and procedures when data is input as input values. This algorithm has been developed by pioneers such as Alan Turing, John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky. The development of computing power, accumulation of data, and development of algorithms will develop into advanced data algorithms called artificial intelligence.
If the data corresponds to the crude oil of the 4th industrial revolution, the algorithm corresponds to the process of processing the crude oil to be refined and utilized. Thus, data and algorithms cannot be separated, and they are combined to create a working principle.
We need to make the most of the power of these data algorithms to enable innovation across industries. At the same time, however, special efforts must be made to control the potential threats of data algorithms and to use them in a way that is beneficial to our lives.
â—‡Three-dimensional perspective of the block chain
In particular, blockchain is evolving in the direction of providing super trust to smart contracts and IoT as well as cryptocurrencies. Therefore, cryptocurrency should not be viewed only as a concept of currency, but in terms of platforms, protocols, interfaces, decentralized applications, and financial, legal, economic, social/political, and technical aspects.
-Blockchain and Finance
Fintech, which combines finance and ICT, will be partially transformed into a distributed transaction system through a P2P network by fusion with blockchain technology. In addition, new financial businesses such as global cryptocurrency, financial exchange exchange office, financial asset safety certification, and distributed automatic investment organization will be created. Therefore, it is necessary to re-establish the role and status of financial institutions, prepare for a new competitive structure, and expand the business beyond the existing deposit and loan-centered financial industry to the digital financial sector, along with the search for new financial services using blockchain. On the one hand, the blockchain is a means of new financial technology, but the digital asset ecosystem that combines real assets such as virtual currency, art, music, and real estate using the blockchain will grow, making it a larger asset for gold and silver and real estate. do. It becomes the object of finance.
-Lack of blockchain-related laws and systems
The US recognized Bitcoin as an asset in 2014, and the UK recognized cryptocurrency as a currency concept in 2014. In addition, Germany recognizes it as a private currency, and Japan is gradually reflecting it in the system through the passage of a fund settlement bill that recognizes cryptocurrency as a real currency in 2016 and the introduction of a virtual currency exchange registration system in 2017. Ultimately, blockchain and cryptocurrency are technically and economically inseparable, and while seeking social consensus on global cryptocurrency transactions, cryptocurrency status and illegal transactions blocking, tax evasion-related legal system improvement, and decentralized autonomous organization It is time to expand the preparation of the institutional aspect.
In Korea, there is also no law on goodwill for cryptocurrencies based on blockchain. As a member of the International Anti-Money Laundering Organization (FATF), it is regulated under the’Specific Financial Information Act (Special Law). Paradoxically speaking, it can be viewed as a good environment for creatively doing new business.
-Blockchain and economy
Since the system is built based on the reliability of the blockchain without a centralized organization, the effect of reducing maintenance costs and financial transaction fees will be great. Accordingly, it is possible to attract new customers and create new markets such as IoT convergence, intellectual property and content authentication, electronic voting, public data management, and autonomous business systems. Global consulting organizations predict that the blockchain technology market will grow at an annual average of more than 60% by 2022, and it is expected to save about 20 billion dollars in financial costs by 2022 through the establishment of a blockchain system.
-Blockchain and social and political
Centralization will lead to decentralization and decentralization, state authority to citizenship with decentralization, monopoly economy through oligopoly to sharing economy, and large families from nuclear family to single-person households. In addition, the era of civic autonomy that shares social overhead capital will unfold, and the blockchain philosophy will be formed as a consensus of social and cultural values. Among these, the digital economy of the future, which will be unfolded with advanced digital technology, may lead to personal information leakage, copyright infringement, authentication forgery, and distrust of portals and SNS. Therefore, as the demand for solution development for solving such social problems increases, the search for solutions using blockchain technology is expected to become more active. In addition, as the limitations of representative democracy become prominent, the craving for direct democracy inevitably grows, and the introduction of a blockchain voting system to realize this is expected to increase. The election system using blockchain is an appropriate technology that can eliminate the problem of unfair elections that are being discussed in many countries, including Korea and the United States.
-Blockchain technology expansion
In preparation for the era of future intelligent information systems and distributed society structures, the development of technologies such as algorithms, platforms, applications, IoT-applied devices and sensors to utilize blockchain as well as the financial sector in all industries will be promoted more actively. Therefore, a strategy to lead a new ecosystem must be prepared by designing a business model linked to the core technologies related to the 4th industrial revolution. In addition, competition for new blockchain technologies with complex functions such as cryptocurrency, platform, and authentication service is intensifying, so a strategy to simultaneously develop original technologies such as consensus algorithms and next-generation distributed platforms and application technologies such as distributed application dApps must be strengthened.
-Blockchain Philosophy and Culture and Arts
The core technology of the 4th industrial revolution plays the role of transforming physically existing things into cyber digital information and digital information back into real things. In the process, information technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain use digital information to provide useful services or values ​​to humans. Of course, it cannot be said that some of the technologies introduced above represent the entire technological field of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In the future, technologies that are better and more influential may emerge. As mentioned at the outset, ABCD, such as blockchain, will make a big difference in culture and arts, which solves uncomfortable human problems and improves the quality of human life. To do this, the blockchain must also be able to see it from a high philosophical perspective.
Blockchain contains democracy and justice social ideology that guarantees individual freedom and rights to property. In addition, in the digital world, it is pursuing a transparent and fair autonomous economic society through consensus algorithms, information communication technology ICT, and Information Communication Technologies infrastructure without a central agency.
We live in a capitalist economy based on a liberal democracy. It is based on the liberal philosophy of John Locke and Adam Smith of England. This idea has been passed down to the American School of Chicago, such as Milton Friedman, having a profound influence on Austrian schools such as David Hume and Jean Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Hayek and von Mises. Since then, it has been passed down to the theory of behavioral economics such as Herbert Simon and Daniel Kahneman, and it can be said that it was reflected in the blockchain technology in the digital era.
In other words, the blockchain was born in the philosophical background of liberal democracy, capitalist economy, and natural natural rights. Surprisingly, Daniel Larimer, who developed the blockchain platforms Steem It and EOS, said he supports the Austrian school, and posted on the website of’Block One’ that he is designing a blockchain system that guarantees these rights. As such, the philosophical value that humanity pursues has not changed even when the times have changed, and it is reflected in the blockchain and cryptocurrency technology intact.
It can be said that the trend of history that flowed into freedom, democracy, decentralization, justice, and private property guarantees as it turned into the digital age was reflected in the blockchain through autonomy, sharing economy, decentralization, fairness, and protection of personal information. Blockchain contains a large part of the philosophy of Liberalism based on the ideology of the right to life, liberty and property rights, and the Austrian school’s philosophy of minimizing government interference and advocating market function, but it does not follow anarchist anaco-capitalists. When you search for books by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and blockchain, the vast majority of books deal with technology, platform, job change, and marketing. Few books deal with culture. Then, is new technology a separate area from culture? Absolutely not.
New technologies often lead to cultural changes. For example, the invention of computers, the Internet and smartphones is not a simple technological invention. It changed the way people communicate, the way they live, and the way they work. There is nothing outside the realm of culture in human society. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is not a change driven by a specific technology, but an innovation that causes change by fusion of various advanced technologies. Here, the global trend of change is creative fusion. Cultural content or cultural technology is the most creative area because it consists of a fusion of content and technology, culture and technology, and hard and soft, and fits the trend of change. Recently, the NFT (non-replaceable token), which combines the value of art with the value of art in addition to double payment prevention such as transaction reliability, scarcity, forgery, etc., which are the advantages of bitcoin, has drastically changed the cryptocurrency market. As culture and art, the best value of mankind, enters the virtual currency market, the paradigm of human civilization is shifting and evolving.
It is time to increase the practicality of the blockchain technology, which is the basis of the activated cryptocurrency, and to build the muscles of the fourth industrial revolution. The power of its source will become the philosophy of the blockchain and ultimately blossom into a culture and art where the breath and patterns of mankind are formed.
※ References:’Blockchain, technology of trust empowering liberalism’ and’people-centered cultural change beyond technological change’ in <KAIST Future Strategy 2020 (Kim Youngsa)>
