Unblocked

Preface

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Since you opened a book on blockchains and business, you probably already know this technology offers more than a new form of money called cryptocurrency—which is more than most people realize. In 2018, blockchains were caught in the crossfire of both cryptocurrency’s swift peak and dramatic plunge. This is not surprising: cryptocurrency is the first and most visible application of blockchain technology, and many people think they are one and the same.

It would have cost you less than $1,000 to purchase a bitcoin (the most well-known cryptocurrency) in early January 2017, and a year later it would have been worth over $14,000. By the end of 2018, it would have plunged under $4,000. That’s a pretty sensational journey. It’s no wonder the headlines focused on it.

This obscures what’s really happening in blockchains. The core blockchain functionality underlying bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is being leveraged to do new things in just about every industry. Thousands of companies are hard at work to solve real problems and unlock meaningful opportunity with the technology. They seek to create, in many cases, an entirely new foundation for our digital world.

Cryptocurrency is, in a way, a fantastic first proof of concept: Can blockchains really be a way to safely transfer digital value from one person to another? (We’ll talk more about what that means in Chapter 3.) Over the past few years, bad actors, scandals, and large-scale hacks of various ...