The Business Blockchain

5 LIGHTHOUSE INDUSTRIES & NEW INTERMEDIARIES

“Fool you are to say you learn by your experience! I prefer to profit by others’ mistakes, and avoid the price of my own.”

–PRINCE OTTO VON BRISMARCK

THIS CHAPTER COVERS the blockchain’s impact in a handful of industries outside of banking and capital markets.

Outside the realm of corporations, there are larger, global problems that are potential targets for the blockchain, and they are related to the economy, industries, government, or society. Some of these problems are rooted by philosophical or ideological underpinnings. Pick your flavor of grievance or issue around the world, and there might be a decentralization-based alternative flavor for a solution that is undoubtedly linked to a blockchain.

If you want to look at true innovation with the blockchain, the common denominator points to no incumbents in that equation. The new startups give no regards to existing central services, and they attempt to build a better service that takes advantage of the decentralization features of the blockchain.

Here is another new paradigm about the blockchain: data and programs are public. Semi-public to be precise, because the information is cryptographically secure, and only visible if you have access rights. It means anyone can publish data on the blockchain. Previously, everything important was behind hidden databases, or a physical service counter, and we had to go somewhere to verify something. Now, we will learn to expose data, and ...