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Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that was created in January 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. Besides this full name, the identity of this person is still a mystery to this day. Unlike government-issued currencies, bitcoin has no central authority (builtin, n.d.).

Data storage

Bitcoin makes use of a technology that is called blockchain. Blockchain is a specific type of database. A database is a collection of information that is stored electronically on a computer system. A key difference between a regular database and a blockchain (database) is the way data is stored. As the name suggests, a blockchain stores information in blocks. Each block can hold a limited amount of information, when filled with information, the block is chained onto the previously filled block. In the case of bitcoin, every ten minutes one block is added to the already existing chain of blocks. This is shown in the figure below.

Since the launch of bitcoin back in 2009, 703854 blocks have been created (19:51 06-10-2021) and added to the chain (blockchain.com, n.d.). By the time you read this, more blocks have already been added and you can check the block height out yourself using the link below the article. Besides the information inside each block, each block is also given an exact timestamp. As such, the blockchain is a timeline with records of all information additions, changes, or mutations during its lifetime. In the case of bitcoin, we could go back to block number 1 and see the information in this block. This information is shown below (blockchain, n.d.).

As this is the first block ever created, there is only one transaction that occurred in this block. It shows that 50 bitcoins (BTC) were sent from COINBASE to address 12c6DSiU4Rq3P4ZxziKxzrL5LmMBrzjrJX. If you look at a more recent block, block 500000, we can see a lot more activity. 2700 transactions are recorded on this block (blockchain, n.d.). A subset is shown below.

References:

blockchain.com. (n.d.). Bitcoin explorer. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.blockchain.com/explorer?view=btc

builtin. (n.d.). Blockchain Technology Defined. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://builtin.com/blockchain

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Online food delivery has taken off in recent years. During the pandemic these services allowed people to order good food and/or groceries despite being in quarantine. The quality of these services is improving quickly: More high-quality food products are added and the delivery process is getting quicker and cheaper.

Gorillas is a recent entry in this space. The German start-up allows users to order groceries through their app and promises to deliver them to you within ten minutes (!). The prices of the groceries are slightly above the prices of regular supermarkets, and the delivery costs are low at €1.80 per order.

To achieve quick delivery times, Gorilla has placed many small warehouses throughout a city with a select number of products. Typical products are fruit, snacks, ready meals, and (alcoholic) drinks. The service is positioned to deliver a few items, which are usually consumed on the same day. Groceries for a whole week can better be ordered through other grocery delivery providers like Picnic.

After placing the order, a picker will collect your items and they are delivered quickly using an electric bike. A typical scenario is to order beers and snacks before a night out. Instead of needing to travel to the supermarket, you can use the saved time to take a shower for instance. The good thing about the service is that Gorilla operates until 11:00 pm. This can be quite a night-saver.

But there are also some drawbacks, one major drawback may be that it`s becoming too convenient to stay at home. In this day and age, you can order anything from home, while working, or following lectures from home as well. Therefore, I believe that it may lead to people becoming more socially isolated.

In addition, it may disincentivize people to eat out at restaurants or drink in bars. Even though restaurants can register to sell their food products through online food delivery platforms, they are still at a disadvantage as the platform will receive a major commission. Therefore, restaurants, bars, and other food businesses may have a harder time making a profit. It would be concerning for lively restaurants to disappear from the city-centers, and be replaced by less personal warehouses just because they can`t make enough money.

As such, Gorilla and other online food delivery services have made life more convenient and were of great help during the pandemic, but we should consider the social impact it may have as this industry keeps on developing in the future.

To ask a question to you, what`s your take on the benefits and drawbacks of online food delivery services? Do you think it`s becoming too convenient to stay at home? Feel free to comment