Working on the HardFork Series with our core creative team is teaching me a lot. First, working with such a high caliber group of individuals is elevating my skills as a writer, not to mention giving me a much deeper appreciation for the art of filmmaking. Secondly, the project is making me realize I have a lot more to learn. Thankfully, when it comes to a task as monumental as this project, no one can do it alone. This is why collaboration and research are so very important.

Sci-fi has always been my favorite genre to work in because:

1. I’m a complete tech/gadget geek; and
2. The sci-fi genre allows you to try to engage your imagination in a creative way to try to predict what the future might look like.

For HardFork, we want the futuristic world we’re creating to be as realistic as possible by utilizing clues from today’s own cutting edge technology. What better way to do this than to consult with some of the most talented and intelligent people in their fields? I was lucky enough to get a few minutes of Matthew Niemerg’s time so he could enlighten me about the future of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and computers. Matt has built a very impressive resume in the field of mathematics and computing.

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Q1. Welcome Matt! If you were to explain blockchain technology to someone unfamiliar what would be your elevator pitch?

A1. It’s a distributed accounting ledger that uses proven math to show consistency between ledger accounts. Let’s say you have bank accounts with multiple banks. Each bank has its own account for you. But with blockchain, the banks share a copy of the same ledger and account information and update it. This way, regardless of which bank you go to, you have all of your money in your account. And that’s just one application. But a general use case is any time you have an append-only database (storing whatever you want) that can be written (and obviously shared) by multiple entities. I rarely get to the general use case in my pitch -- that’s maybe about the 5th time talking about distributed ledger technologies to the same person.

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Q2. In what ways to do you foresee blockchain and cryptocurrency being used five years from now. How about ten years from now?

A2. It’s the new financial revolution. Blockchain -- or distributed ledger technologies -- will be used in multiple aspects: payment platforms, private currencies, stock trading / settlements, digital asset tracking / smart property, identity management systems, supply chain records, etc.

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Q3. All things considered, how long until we see mass adoption of cryptocurrency?

A3. One to two generations. My personal target is not my or my parents’ generation; rather, it’s the next generation. They are the ones who will grow up with it and need to have the knowledge of how it works and the tools behind it.

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Q4. What are the hurdles we need to overcome to achieve mass adoption?

A4. Have more babies.

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Q5. In what ways will blockchain technology improve people’s lives?

A5. Transparency.

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Q6. Do you think a form of cryptocurrency will ever overtake individual fiat currencies as a global currency of choice?

A6. Maybe. Hard to say. I would think people would like a voluntary currency versus one that is issued by the central bank of a nation-state. I think we’ll see a competing and dynamic market in voluntary currencies.

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Q7. What is the most surprising use of and/or application for blockchain you’ve discovered?

A7. Government transparency.

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Q8. What can the average person do now to prepare for how this tech will change our world?

A8. Download mobile wallets and see how easy it is to use? Not sure. Most of the application programs are too techy even now. I’d say just downloading mobile wallets / pc wallets and moving coins. Finding friends who have more experience in “fintech” and asking them for help. There is a wealth of resources available that are available for free.

At the end of the day, old and new companies (and even decentralized projects) are always forming that will be providing the services that are the backbone to this new industry if you can’t figure it out on your own.

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Q9. What new businesses do you envision wider adoption of blockchain/crypto sparking?

A9. Digital Asset Management. Trading and storing crypto assets for people who are interested but do not understand this new technology. Record-keeping and certification businesses, software development, marketing, business management, and other consultation services that require the expertise of integrating blockchain (or distributed ledger technologies) from the online world to the offline one.

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Q10. One of our main character’s, Drezzie, is tasked with keeping the cryptocurrency cold storage wallets of some very influential people safe. How could she best do that?

A10. She uses digital artwork and keeps the private keys hidden in the images. Different people have unique art pieces that are associated to them. Only she knows how to decode the private key from the digital image. This is a technique known as steganography. I don’t do this or anything ...

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Q11. How do you see computers evolving in ten years, in terms of hardware, user interface, speed, and storage?

A11. We’ll hit a limitation on the chipset, i.e. 11 nm or something. No idea where the limit is, but it’s already tough to improve. Instead we’ll have more multi-core architectures and better parallel computation algorithms and hardware that can handle this. Maybe quantum computing will pan out...

(Gif compliments of Giphy.com)

Our HardFork Mini Series is so groundbreaking because it has been open source, truly a community effort. You have been very generous with your derivative ideas by writing posts with the #hardforkseries hashtag. Did you miss our very first DTube video? If so, catch it here!

Also, thank you so much for the support through your contributions, upvotes, and resteems! We are combing through each of your contributions and some of you will receive an invitation to a members only Slack group called HardFork-Universe that will give you direct access to our core creative team.

*I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.

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