The essence of blockchain technology is a continuously growing list of records which are all linked and secured by cryptography. Given the fact that profound understanding of a problem is key for designing a good solution, what major issues can blockchain help us with?
1) Data protection
The first major task will be transition of all IT systems to a new platform. Recently we have seen several massive security breaches impacting tens of millions of people. Data is vulnerable and open to exploitation, with both ransomware and identity frauds an increasingly common occurrence.
The root cause is that conventional IT systems use hierarchical control mechanisms. Then when a hacker breaks in and gains access to, say, passwords, they have almost everything. Singular keys enabling individuals to access data are no good in a hyper-connected world.
Single points of control make systems vulnerable to security breaches. We need collective intelligence dynamics, networked security architecture. Any action to be validated would then require a consensus among many participants. And that's what blockchain is about.
2) Economic value in a digitised world
As value nowadays is being produced not so much by manufacturing and traditional work, but rather through interactions, data and information, it is not clear how to distribute it. The introduction of a universal basic income is probably not the best solution.
The primary mechanism of remunerating people for the value they create, which we have known for centuries, is now disappearing. Traditional concepts of economic value will be soon obsolete. We need to develop a new practical paradigm of economic value in general.
And we also need to think about how to remunerate fairly individuals participating in value-generating networks. Blockchain technology might be the answer to these problems.
Book: Christensen, Clayton et al.: Competing Against Luck (HarperBusiness, 2016, 288 pages)
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