:00:00. > :00:37.There are few things I love more than computer data made beautiful.
:00:38. > :00:41.It's even better when you can throw it up on a massive, circular wall
:00:42. > :00:45.and then peruse it all from your evil genius' chair.
:00:46. > :00:49.Yes, first I am going to destroy the earth!
:00:50. > :01:05.Apart from where all my clones shall live.
:01:06. > :01:12.This is the Data Observatory, at London's Imperial College,
:01:13. > :01:16.from where you can observe any data you want.
:01:17. > :01:20.That's where we are right now, right there.
:01:21. > :01:23.Today, Professor William Knottenbelt is using it to show me
:01:24. > :01:27.specifically all of those being made right now using
:01:28. > :01:34.These are where the bitcoin transactions are happening
:01:35. > :01:39.and here we can see the individual transactions as they happen.
:01:40. > :01:46.This is somebody who is hoovering up lots of little amounts
:01:47. > :01:53.of bitcoin from their wallet and using it to make two payments.
:01:54. > :01:56.So they are just going down the back of the sofa
:01:57. > :02:02.That's a lot of change down the back of the sofa they're finding.
:02:03. > :02:05.There's actually a lot of activity also going on in China,
:02:06. > :02:08.but we can't see most of it because it's behind the great firewall
:02:09. > :02:11.Love to know what's going on behind that.
:02:12. > :02:13.Unusual transactions look even more lovely.
:02:14. > :02:16.In fact, this malicious activity looks a bit like a parasitic worm,
:02:17. > :02:20.which I guess, in a way, is what it is.
:02:21. > :02:24.There's also beauty in how the bitcoin currency works
:02:25. > :02:31.Just like a bank will keep a record of the movement of money,
:02:32. > :02:34.something called a ledger, there is a record of all the bitcoin
:02:35. > :02:38.transactions that have ever been made.
:02:39. > :02:41.It's a massive file called the Blockchain.
:02:42. > :02:43.And the brilliant thing about the Blockchain
:02:44. > :02:48.You can't fake an entry, delete a payment or create new
:02:49. > :02:54.And that's because copies of the Blockchain are stored
:02:55. > :02:57.on thousands of computers across the globe.
:02:58. > :03:00.You can't alter the record of events unless you can somehow
:03:01. > :03:05.tamper with each copy of the file on the majority of these machines.
:03:06. > :03:10.Let's face it, realistically you can't.
:03:11. > :03:12.I'm about to make a bitcoin payment on this phone
:03:13. > :03:15.and you will see that transaction enter the bitcoin network.
:03:16. > :03:23.It's now in the network waiting to be verified.
:03:24. > :03:27.Already, all of these computers around the world know about that
:03:28. > :03:30.transaction and in a few minutes' time one of them will verify it
:03:31. > :03:38.A permanent record of my transaction that in theory
:03:39. > :03:43.cannot ever be tampered with or undone.
:03:44. > :03:45.But the Blockchain method is more than just a way
:03:46. > :03:51.The idea of a tamper-proof ledger stored on many machines is being
:03:52. > :03:58.taken seriously as a way to keep a record of all sorts of transactions.
:03:59. > :04:10.Jamie Bartlett has been to meet a few Blockchain entrepreneurs.
:04:11. > :04:15.I think the Blockchain to me is all about efficiency.
:04:16. > :04:17.What's cool about a Blockchain is that it's software
:04:18. > :04:23.Much like in the music business, like the combination
:04:24. > :04:31.We think it has the potential to be that disruptive moment.
:04:32. > :04:34.The Blockchain is a piece of technology in order to facilitate
:04:35. > :04:38.trust amongst individuals, governments,
:04:39. > :04:47.So, we're in the city of London at the Ethereum Developer Conference.
:04:48. > :04:51.300 or so people have paid ?750 each to be here for the week
:04:52. > :04:59.They're calling it web 3.0 and they're saying this is the way
:05:00. > :05:02.the internet was meant to be, something that's not run by anybody
:05:03. > :05:09.because no one person can control it.
:05:10. > :05:12.The reason so many people are here, from banks, to software companies
:05:13. > :05:14.and startups is because they think it could dramatically improve
:05:15. > :05:21.Right now, if you want to sell your house, it requires a lot of
:05:22. > :05:22.paperwork, legal agreements, solicitors,
:05:23. > :05:33.The idea is that this could be done as a digital transaction that's
:05:34. > :05:35.recognised and verified on the Blockchain much faster
:05:36. > :05:37.and secured without third parties getting involved.
:05:38. > :05:40.The possible implications of that, what you can do with that,
:05:41. > :05:48.If you think about our existing financial system,
:05:49. > :05:52.they're holding all of this money and that gives them a lot of power
:05:53. > :05:54.and that's one of the really compelling things
:05:55. > :06:00.It doesn't have some guy sitting in the middle of it
:06:01. > :06:09.who can abuse the system if they want to.
:06:10. > :06:12.Bureaucracy in general will start floating away as we get governments,
:06:13. > :06:13.institutions, individuals, businesses, enterprises to be
:06:14. > :06:16.able to trust and deal with each other as transparently and easily
:06:17. > :06:22.A lot of bureaucrats will be watching this,
:06:23. > :06:25.So, who is behind this potentially transformative technology?
:06:26. > :06:28.The inventor of Ethereum, one application of Blockchain,
:06:29. > :06:40.In general, you know, I think we're seeing new technological eras
:06:41. > :06:44.that are kind of as different from each other as say
:06:45. > :06:46.the Iron Age and the Bronze Age were,
:06:47. > :06:50.but we're seeing them come up every ten or 20 years.
:06:51. > :06:53.No single technology will bring about the exact utopia that your
:06:54. > :06:56.particular political ideology prescribes, but it does make
:06:57. > :07:05.So, by working together, we can create systems that are much
:07:06. > :07:11.more reliable than any single one of us could ever be.
:07:12. > :07:13.This is because the Blockchain is a distributed system,
:07:14. > :07:20.which means no one person is in charge of checking it.
:07:21. > :07:23.Every user effectively has a copy of the data and a certain number
:07:24. > :07:26.of those users check the transactions to make sure they
:07:27. > :07:29.This kind of decentralised, distributed system,
:07:30. > :07:37.as a possible way of making the internet more democratic.
:07:38. > :07:40.That kind of connection, how you can change technology
:07:41. > :07:42.that might change society, the benefits are quite clear
:07:43. > :07:45.to the typical user and to the way the internet works,
:07:46. > :07:49.but it's certainly not without its difficulties.
:07:50. > :07:52.Indeed, this kind of technology is a double-edged sword.
:07:53. > :07:55.On the one hand it is censorship resistant and it lacks a central
:07:56. > :07:58.point of control, but that's also a problem.
:07:59. > :08:02.Imagine, for example, if somebody transferred ownership of your car
:08:03. > :08:07.or your house to someone else in a malicious manner.
:08:08. > :08:09.How would you get repossession of your house?
:08:10. > :08:29.There is no court or appeal body that you could go to.
:08:30. > :08:33.By now you'll know I'm a bit of a weirdo when it comes to turning
:08:34. > :08:38.This is the new Big Bang Data show, at London's Somerset House.
:08:39. > :08:41.Part celebration of and part warning about the amount
:08:42. > :08:46.of data flying around the world, freely available to anyone looking.
:08:47. > :08:48.Here, some of the publicly accessible selfies,
:08:49. > :08:52.taken in London, and here are some of the masks designed to defeat
:08:53. > :08:54.facial recognition software, although even I can this is
:08:55. > :09:08.This is a wall of selective tweets made near to Somerset House
:09:09. > :09:11.8:20am - wide-awake and awaiting the postman.
:09:12. > :09:13.Saturday kitchen, I'm ready for you.
:09:14. > :09:18.If ever I survive a nuclear war and there's no internet
:09:19. > :09:20.or infrastructure, I would flee to Cambridge.
:09:21. > :09:21.LAUGHS I can't read that one out.
:09:22. > :09:27.Think of it as a cross-section of London's thoughts.
:09:28. > :09:32.The most relaxing piece to look at has to be this one.
:09:33. > :09:37.This, believe it or not, is the stock market in galaxy form.
:09:38. > :09:46.Every star is a company, every flash is a trade in that company's stocks.
:09:47. > :09:49.When you've just seen a small flash like that,
:09:50. > :09:54.that's probably ?10 million that's changed hands.
:09:55. > :09:57.Tell me about these wiggly creatures crawling around the sky.
:09:58. > :10:00.Those are artificial lifeforms that live in the sky with the stars
:10:01. > :10:09.and they feed from the light generated by the trading.
:10:10. > :10:11.These creatures evolve over the course of the exhibition,
:10:12. > :10:13.getting better at finding those light sources and
:10:14. > :10:19.So, it is just before 2:30pm UK time,
:10:20. > :10:26.Is that when the stock exchange opens?
:10:27. > :10:29.You'll see when the New York Stock Exchange opens.
:10:30. > :10:33.Just before it opens, the creatures look as if they are getting excited.
:10:34. > :10:39.Whoa! Oh, wow!
:10:40. > :10:41.Ding-a-ling-a-ling, ladies and gentlemen,
:10:42. > :10:51.There's been a huge amount of work, involving nearly 30 people,
:10:52. > :10:54.helping us to get clearance from individual stock exchanges
:10:55. > :11:22.That's it for the short version of Click. More on iPlayer now. But
:11:23. > :11:26.another example of the kind of data we are giving away for anyone to use
:11:27. > :11:33.however they want. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you I know where
:11:34. > :11:39.your cat lives .com. If you have uploaded your cat to Instagram and
:11:40. > :11:44.called it 'cat', you may find it on this website at the location where
:11:45. > :11:50.the photo was taken. Owners and cats, you have been warned! Thanks
:11:51. > :11:52.for watching. I am off in search of Woody.