Preface

Contracts, transactions, and the records of them are among the defining

structures in our economic, legal, and political systems. They protect assets

and set organizational boundaries. They establish and verify identities and

chronicle events. They govern interactions among nations, organizations,

communities, and individuals. They guide managerial and social action.

And yet these critical tools and the bureaucracies formed to manage them

have not kept up with the economy’s digital transformation. In a digital

world, the way we regulate and maintain administrative control has to

change.

Blockchain promises to solve this problem. The technology at the heart of

Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, Blockchain is an open, distributed

ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a

verifiable and permanent way. The ledger itself can also be programmed to

trigger transactions automatically.

With Blockchain, we can imagine a world in which contracts are embedded

in a digital code and stored in transparent, shared databases, where they are

protected from deletion, tampering, and revision. In this world every

agreement, every process, every task, and every payment would have a

digital record and signature that could be identified, validated, stored, and

shared.

Intermediaries like lawyers, brokers, and bankers might no longer be

necessary. Individuals, organizations, machines, and algorithms would

freely transact and interact with one another with little friction. This is the

immense potential of Blockchain.

Blockchain is a foundational technology: It has the potential to create new

foundations for our economic and social systems. But while the impact will

be enormous; it will take decades for Blockchain to seep into our economic

and social infrastructure. The process of adoption will be gradual and

steady not sudden, as waves of technological and institutional change

momentum. That insight and its strategic implications are what are to be

explored.