The Need to Connect People Goes Far Beyond Cryptocurrency

Digital currency is certainly a hot-button topic these days and this is one trend that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. What started simply as a digital currency designed to provide an outlet for wealth beyond the restriction and confiscation of a central bank has now turned into something much more powerful.

Bitcoin, for example, saw its first initial release in January of 2009 and in that time, has grown a great deal. One study estimated that in 2017, there were between 2.9 and 5.8 million people using some form of cryptocurrency wallet - with most of them using Bitcoin. As of 2015, there are even over 100,000 different merchants and vendors around the world that accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.

The need to connect people goes far beyond the topic of cryptocurrency

P2P as a concept has long been used to share files between two users in a far more effective manner than ever before, but these days people are taking the concept itself to the extreme. If anything, cyber currencies like Bitcoin are just a metaphor for a larger wave of change that is taking place right before our eyes.

But despite the fact that cryptocurrencies and similar concepts are popular specifically because they connect users together in more of a peer-to-peer scenario, this itself presents its own fair share of challenges. Chief among them is security - whether you're talking about exchanging money, classified documents or simply communicating, how can you protect everyone involved when centralized roles have been shattered for all time? This has led to a number of interesting developments from companies all around the world.

Independent bodies govern P2P security

One example of a company that is working closely on the issue of security is P2PS - the P2P Solutions Foundation. As an independent body governed by the Foundation Council, P2PS has been authorized to create a worldwide network of digital services that are not only intended to act as an alternative to traditional P2P networks, but that also facilitate and allow stakeholders to oversee productive growth as well.

Much of this focus has taken the form of the P2PS Token ICO - billed as the world's first block-chain powered, totally secure, peer-to-peer and interference-free digital communications platform designed to both securely store and exchange data ranging from cryptocurrency information to government classified data and absolutely everything in between. This has allowed the Foundation to govern the development of components like crypto-token wallets and other fundamental elements within a particular ecosystem, all in an effort to better integrate transaction economies for stakeholders all over the world.

There are also many other companies working on similar solutions, some with broader focuses and some with focuses that are even more niche. Fintechfans, for example, is a B2C (business to consumer) platform that is designed to connect financial technology companies with potential professional employees, acting as a truly decentralized staffing platform. Valorem is another example, billed as a platform that people can use to execute multi-party transactions across multiple platforms, that was built on the Ethereum ERC 20 protocol.

Many of these solutions rely heavily on some type of total, end-to-end encryption - allowing data to be protected not only once it reaches its destination, but in transit as well. A very basic example of this idea in action would be the popular messaging app WhatsApp, used by more than one billion people all over the world. WhatsApp's security is so strong that only the parties involved in a communication can access that information. Even the company's own representatives do not have a way to retrieve information without the express consent of the users involved.

Many organizations operating in the P2P and cryptocurrency spaces have adopted this same mentality but on a much larger scale. End-to-end encryption is also a topic that has been very controversial in recent years, but when the stakes are this high it's difficult to see some other type of viable alternative.

It's safe to say that we're currently in the middle of a P2P revolution - one that shows absolutely no signs of slowing down anytime soon. In many ways, cryptocurrencies were only the start - P2P technologies have been used to transfer and store everything from medical records to bank account information and beyond. In an era where cyber attacks happen at a rate of every 39 seconds on average, it's clear that security is and will remain a top priority. Organizations like P2PS, Valorem, Fintechfans and others, therefore, represent the best chance we have at both staying protected and coming closer together than ever before at the exact same time.

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency.