When we hear “Blockchain” most of us think bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It has much greater potential applications than that. A good definition is “an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually anything of value”. The software technology has not caught up with the potential yet but it will at some point. Some of the possibilities are smart contracts, investment management and supply chain technology where all prior transactions of assets from initial sourcing are tracked. A very interesting example is that if blockchain is used for tracking diamonds then it will be virtually impossible for blood diamonds to be introduced into the supply. This is because the diamonds in the supply chain would be verified from the source of the mine all the way through to the ultimate buyer. Smart contracts will make it possible to have if then contracts in which the next step in the process won’t be initiated until the prior step is fulfilled. The possibilities for asset tracing will be amazing.
I don’t know nearly as much about how to use this new technology as I would like and much of the application software has yet to be developed, but I will be trying to keep up.