CEOs often ask me: “What is blockchain, and what impact will it have?” After tapping into Forrester’s research, here’s my answer. Blockchain is a computer program that lets two parties exchange value in a trusted and verifiable way, even if they don’t know or trust each other. Depending on the type of blockchain, that value could be cryptocurrency, food, messages, information, digital art, or real art. The important fact is that the programming, through its design and use of encryption, can guarantee transactions without having to verify the dependability or trustworthiness of the sellers and buyers. I like this quick video I found on YouTube that explains the rudiments of how blockchains work. Blockchain appears to be sexy. Utopianists, tech-hipsters, libertarians, entrepreneurs, tech-artistes, preppers, and other players (criminal and not) have flocked to the tech. Why? Because they see it as, in no particular order: a way to destroy Facebook, Google, and the rest of “Big Tech”; a way to escape the control of “Big Banks,” “Big Insurance,” “Big Government,” “Big Whatever”; a way to get rich quick; or a way to reconstruct society into a freer and user-controlled form, using code.
Read more : Blockchain For CEOs.
