Adding to the already impressive list of big name proponents of Bitcoin' technology, tech giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) in partnership with Quartz has published an article on the disruptive potential of the blockchain. According to HP, the innovation could greatly disrupt the work of banks, credit card companies, lawyers, and perhaps most of all: the IRS.
The article is published in the latest issue of HP Matter, a “digital magazine where the brightest minds in business share their perspectives on a technology-driven world,” and speaks highly of blockchain-tech.
In the piece, called “The Technology Behind Bitcoin Could Replace Lawyers, Too,” the nameless author explains how smart contracts could drastically reform the financial sector. Arguing, as has become fashionable lately, that Bitcoin's real revolution is not the currency but the blockchain technology, the blog post describes how lines of self-executing code could replace lawyers, accountants, consultants, and bankers.
An excerpt reads:
“In Bitcoin, the contract is the transaction itself: one party sending another funds. But in commercial banking or investments, smart contracts could execute unknowably complex contingencies based on the terms of the contract, all in real-time, with total transparency to the agreeing parties.”
Blockchain's “unbeatable” strength, the article continues, is its imperviousness to fraud. Detailing the concept of an immutable shared ledger, the piece explains how blockchain technology could transform or perhaps even replace significant parts of the financial sector.
According to the article:
“Innovators in the [blockchain] space are experimenting with ways to use the protocol in [Business-to-Business] payments without all the usual limits on transaction volume. If they succeed, credit card companies, payments processors, and legions of accounting and law firms (and of course, the attendant consultancies) would be devastated.”
In conclusion, the article ends with what can perhaps best be interpreted as some words of warning. The piece points out that the blockchain – if successful – could save billions of dollars for companies and vastly increase the speed of transactions. But as such, it might also replace jobs and circumvent the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
In the words of the author:
“[If blockchain innovators succeed, it will] cost jobs but save billions for companies and individuals alike. But it also will increase the speed (and potentially the anonymity) of transactions at all levels of the economy. With that kind of uptick in volume, the IRS might end up being the most disrupted entity of them all.”
Despite the company seemingly openly embracing the potential of blockchain technology, the article does not mention any HP projects that involve either Bitcoin of blockchain technology.
Some other tech giants that have publicly come out in support of Bitcoin and blockchain technology so far include IBM, Microsoft, and Dell.
Cointelegraph reached out to HP Matter for additional context, but has so far not received a response. The article will be updated once we do hear back.