Media Lab leaders hope that, by acting as a home for research and development, MIT can help the Bitcoin software project shed its chaotic past and emerge as a versatile technology platform.
If the idea works, Bitcoin’s underlying technology, the blockchain, has a chance to become a new digital system that makes transferring money or signing a contract.
The blockchain technology acts like a digital ledger. It records transactions from one party to another and verifies those transfers are valid when computers on the network solve a complex math problem that essentially unlocks the transaction. But rather than being held by a banker who might charge steep fees for that work, the blockchain’s ledger is viewable by anyone and spread across the entire network.
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