Blockchain and the Middleman | TED Institute

Transactions have always involved middlemen. They establish trust—but also bring extra cost, complexity, and potential for error. Blockchain provides a secure, fast, transparent, and error-free digital record of the history of transactions, and so has the potential to replace many intermediaries. Will it?

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[BitcoinOutLoud]

It's worth pointing out that the whole reason "Blockchain" is so revolutionary is that it relies on a "Proof of Work" consensus mechanism. A blockchain, or "decentralized timestamp server", isn't useful if it isn't immutable, and is only immutable if it requires unreasonable amounts of work to modify it. It's not the encoding of the transaction data that requires the solving of complex mathematical equations. It's a brute force guessing game whose purpose is only to **prove** that there has been **work** invested (ergo "Proof of Work"), aligning the incentives of those who invest it with the goal of the system. Cool video though, I look forward to peer-to-peer electronic cash making many of today's middlemen obsolete!

[andreidomashkevich]

It`s exactly what BitClave is working on nowadays! That`s great!

[Thaidory]

For the financial market part the question is when the regulators will allow blockchain to compete with NASDAQ at least on par.

There is a decentralized exchange orderbook.io that try to follow every existing regulation in US. And they cannot implement features much needed for seasoned traders like PAM trading or short-selling. Just because regulations says "no, you can't have that".