- There's no shortage of speculation
about how blockchains may be used in the future,
so instead, let's look at actual blockchain uses today.
Everledger is a platform that illuminates transparency
in a number of industries.
Specifically, the solution manages characteristics of assets
that include origin, sustainability footprint,
and compliance standards.
It can be used to bring new insights to the life cycle
of items such as art, batteries, diamonds, and luxury goods.
The platform works by storing
an authenticated digital record, a digital twin.
of an asset in a blockchain.
This record contains details on how it came to be,
where it came from, and who made it.
As the asset moves through the life cycle,
all details are recorded on the Everledger blockchain.
Because of provenance,
meaning the record of something's origination,
and with immutability, that no record is ever deleted,
all manner of stakeholders can have greater confidence
in the details of an asset.
This solution helps in understanding whether, for example,
diamonds came from mines with ethical standards,
that batteries don't use banned chemicals,
and whether luxury goods are counterfeit or stolen.
Let's look at another fascinating real use
of blockchain today.
Most organizations in the world today
are formed around a hierarchy.
There are leaders and subordinates
all with specific roles and responsibilities.
But what if we could organize differently?
For example, in a way that would eliminate hierarchy
and where decisions are made autonomously
and by participants that don't need to know each other.
This is the nature
of a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO.
It's built and operated on blockchain technology.
The value of a DAO includes
eliminating the need to trust participants,
since trust is encoded in the software, not people.
It's a mechanism for human coordination
and can be global on day one.
DAOs have an entirely democratic design
as everyone has equal opportunities to participate,
and anyone can submit ideas for innovation
or have their voice heard around an organizational decision.
In addition, I'm guessing there are many people
who would be happy not to have anyone to report to,
and DAOs don't have managers.
Many of the DAOs that exist today
are in the financial sector.
Using blockchain technology means there is no need
for any financial intermediaries.
All financial transactions and rules
are recorded in a blockchain system.
And security and integrity,
despite the distributed nature of the organization,
is strongly maintained.
A popular example of a DAO is the Bitcoin network.
DAOs are certainly in their early stages,
and there have been notable challenges.
But with growing evidence of success,
they may be here to stay.
Whether they grow significantly
beyond their current scope is yet to be seen.
Finally, let's look at blockchain as a solution
for online voting.
There continues to be significant underlying challenges
with having broadly-accepted online voting solutions.
Cited most frequently are the issues
with ensuring that a person is who they say they are,
that they can only vote once for a given election,
and that everyone's vote is protected from meddling.
These areas are not trivial to solve.
Even with the technological hurdles overcome,
we'll still need to convince people
that online voting is safe
and that they should have confidence
in the integrity of their online vote.
Let's look at a case study.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
located in Cleveland, Ohio
is a famous and popular organization for education
and inspiring visitors on the power of rock music.
Each year, the organization inducts new musicians
into their Hall of Fame through votes cast by its members.
In 2016, when the vote was cast
using a traditional online voting application,
a computer bot attacked the results
and produced erroneous results.
Great embarrassment ensued
and there was damage to the organization's credibility.
The following year for the inductee vote,
a blockchain solution from a company called Votem was used.
It successfully processed over 1.8 million votes
from over 100 different countries without issue.
At the time,
it was the largest use of online voting using blockchain.
The system was secure, auditable, tamper-proof and low cost.
Of course, citing one successful case study
doesn't suggest blockchain will ultimately be the answer
to all online voting needs.
For sure, voting within an organization
is less challenging than what's required
in large-scale public office elections.
There's an ongoing and rigorous debate
about whether blockchain will succeed in that context.
Regardless, it's likely blockchain-based online voting
will grow in the years ahead.
These examples demonstrate both the increasing diversity
of blockchain technology uses
and that it's solving real challenges today.
As a problem-solver and a creator of innovation,
blockchain appears to have a great future ahead.