Platform Revolution: Blockchain Technology as the Operating System of the Digital Age (Blockchain Research Institute Enterprise)

The first era of the digital age spanned mainframes, minicomputers, the personal computer, the Internet, the World Wide Web, social media, mobility, the cloud, and big data. We're now entering a second era where digital technologies permeate everything. Such inventions as machine learning, robotics, drones, software robots or "bots," process automation, and additive manufacturing are accelerating new types of platforms on which to build digital engines of the global economy. This second era has weighty implications for enterprise strategy and architecture. New business models will disrupt most industries and provide platforms for innovation for decades to come. This book looks at blockchain technologies as foundational to the governance and widespread adoption of these innovations—digital identities, data analytics, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, distributed energy infrastructure, and quantum computing. Every organization can finally become a truly digital entity if its leaders are prepared. This book is designed to prepare them for the waves of creative destruction ahead. "The first book to explain why blockchain technology will fundamentally change the Internet, what it does, and how we use it. Over the past 30 years, no theorist of the digital age has better explained the next big thing than Don Tapscott. For example, in Wikinomics, Tapscott was the first to show how the Internet provides the first global platform for mass collaboration. Now, he writes about a profound technological shift that will change how the world does business--and everything else--using blockchain technology, which powers the digital currency Bitcoin. The Internet as we know it is great for collaboration and communication, but is deeply flawed when it comes to commerce and privacy. The new blockchain technology facilitates peer-to-peer transactions without any intermediary such as a bank or governing body. Keeping the user's information anonymous, the blockchain validates and keeps a permanent public record of all transactions. That means that your personal information is private and secure, while all activity is transparent and incorruptible--reconciled by mass collaboration and stored in code on a digital ledger. With its advent, we will not need to trust each other in the traditional sense, because trust is built into the system itself. Although many opportunities for the blockchain require a digital currency, Bitcoin is only one application of this great innovation in computer science. The blockchain can hold any legal document, from deeds and marriage licences to educational degrees and birth certificates. Call it the World Wide Ledger. It enables smart contracts, decentralized autonomous organizations, decentralized government services, and transactions among things. The Internet of Everything needs a Ledger of Everything: the blockchain is a truly open, distributed, global platform that fundamentally changes what we can do online, how we do it, and who can participate. Tapscott, writing with his son Alex, a financial analyst and technologist, argues that the blockchain will shape the next era of prosperity--in finance, business, healthcare, education, governance, and beyond."-- Provided by publisher Blockchain technology is powering our future. As the technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Facebook's Libra, open software platforms like Ethereum, and disruptive companies like Ripple, it's too important to ignore. In this revelatory book, Don Tapscott, the bestselling author of Wikinomics, and his son, blockchain expert Alex Tapscott, bring us a brilliantly researched, highly readable, and essential book about the technology driving the future of the economy. Blockchain is the ingeniously simple, revolution­ary protocol that allows transactions to be simultaneously anonymous and secure by maintaining a tamperproof public ledger of value. Though it's best known as the technology that drives bitcoin and other digital cur­rencies, it also has the potential to go far beyond currency, to record virtually everything of value to humankind, from birth and death certifi­cates to insurance claims, land titles, and even votes. Blockchain is also essential to understand if you're an artist who wants to make a living off your art, a consumer who wants to know where that hamburger meat really came from, an immigrant who's tired of paying big fees to send money home to your loved ones, or an entrepreneur looking for a new platform to build a business. And those examples are barely the tip of the iceberg. As with major paradigm shifts that preceded it, blockchain technology will create winners and losers. This book shines a light on where it can lead us in the next decade and beyond. The Internet as we know it is great for collaboration and communication, but is deeply flawed when it comes to commerce and privacy. The new blockchain technology facilitates peer-to-peer transactions without any intermediary such as a bank or governing body. Keeping the user's information anonymous, the blockchain validates and keeps a permanent public record of all transactions. That means that your personal information is private and secure, while all activity is transparent and incorruptible--reconciled by mass collaboration and stored in code on a digital ledger. With its advent, we will not need to trust each other in the traditional sense, because trust is built into the system itself. Although many opportunities for the blockchain require a digital currency, Bitcoin is only one application of this great innovation in computer science. The blockchain can hold any legal document, from deeds and marriage licenses to educational degrees and birth certificates. Call it the World Wide Ledger. It enables smart contracts, decentralized autonomous organizations, decentralized government services, and transactions among things. The Internet of Everything needs a Ledger of Everything: the blockchain is a truly open, distributed, global platform that fundamentally changes what we can do online, how we do it, and who can participate The new blockchain technology facilitates peer-to-peer transactions without any intermediary such as a bank or governing body. Keeping the user's information anonymous, the blockchain validates and keeps a permanent public record of all transactions. Bitcoin is only one application of this innovation; the blockchain can hold any legal document, from deeds and marriage licenses to educational degrees and birth certificates. The Tapscotts examine the promises-- and the perils-- of where the technology can lead us. -- adapted from back cover Don Tapscott And Alex Tapscott. Updated Edition With Material On Cryptoassets, Icos, Smart Contracts, And More--cover. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 317-346) And Index.