What is Bitcoin and Blockchain?

Bitcoin is the first decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency. This means there is no central authority (Bank, Visa, or PayPal) that controls the creation, transfer, and storage of your Bitcoin. A blockchain is a public ledger held by every participant in the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are packaged into blocks that are added to the ledger every 10 minutes. This means that every 10 minutes the entire state of the network is recorded. The block is then validated by all participants and is added to a chain of older blocks, recording how the entire network has evolved since its inception. A blockchain is secured against attack through a process called “mining,” where participants dedicate computing power to compete to find the new blocks. The mining process incentivizes all actors to compete honestly by producing new “coins” for a miner when they produce a valid block. If a malicious actor tries to cheat, the block is rejected by every other participant and no reward is granted, because they are competing for the same reward. Thus, a blockchain is only as secure as the number of participants, and Bitcoin has by far the most participants competing to produce a new block on the chain. With Bitcoin, a new block is found every ~10min and produces 12.5 Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the most secure blockchain, and has 125,000 times the computing power of the second most secure (Ethereum). Since its inception in 2009 Bitcoin has never been compromised and has never been shut down, despite constant attacks. There are now many blockchains and many “coins” that perform different functions and we would love to help make the blockchain work for you or your business.

Programming the Blockchain

Bitcoin and other blockchains are digital in nature, meaning that every aspect is programmable.

• Digital assets like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ether incorporate coded instructions into the asset's digital DNA. Assets can even trigger external actions like unlocking a Biki bike, opening a locker, or starting a coin operated laundry machine.
• Wallets can be programmed to provide hierarchical access that conforms to your business structure, can be configured to required multiple parties to confirm a transaction, and as a bonus, accounting is natively incorporated.
• Smart contracts are self-executing contracts that live on the blockchain, with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller directly written into lines of open-source code. This provides functionality that once required an accountant or lawyer — such as escrow services — to be executed autonomously.
• You can create your own coin for use as loyalty points or redeemable tokens for a service.

We can provide these services and more with on-island in-person consultation service as Hawai‘i’s blockchain help desk.

Services

Our Mission

Navigating the waters of the blockchain space to see how it can work for your business is a daunting endeavor. Research requires time, and sorting through the deluge of information/misinformation on the web is challenging for any entrant into the space. This is why we started Blockchain Solutions Hawai‘i, we want to put a face on Bitcoin and the blockchain and provide in-person information and consulting. As graduate students in the natural sciences we would often talk about Bitcoin and the blockchain with our friends and family, we noticed that everyone had heard about Bitcoin but nobody understood how it worked and the implications for the future. We strive to be Hawai‘i’s blockchain help desk, and want to help you understand how Bitcoin and the blockchain can work for you and your business.