Talks at Google in London were delighted to welcome Alex Tapscott to talk about his book Blockchain Revolution, looking at how the technology behind Bitcoin can reshape the world of business and transform the old order of human affairs for the better.
Excitement about the blockchain — the technology underlying bitcoin, which uses a peer-to-peer network of computers to authenticate transactions — has been building in many unlikely quarters, including banks and legal firms. This technology revolution is raising spirits both among revolutionaries and incumbents.
Banks see a more secure and better-designed means of clearing transactions. Other industries muse about “smart contracts” — which hold the possibility of selling services to customers on the internet far more simply and efficiently. Meanwhile, blockchain enthusiasts imagine the outsmarting of corporate monoliths by networks of buyers and sellers linked by technology.
One difficulty with blockchain technology being widely adopted, is that it is hard to grasp. But if the idea could be fitted to broader use it could, for example, allow a “blockchain Uber”. Instead of one monopoly’s software co-ordinating passengers and taxis, customers and drivers could fix trips as a co-operative, enabled by their identities. It could amount to, as one “blockchain theorist” exclaims, “a complete revolution in how we do everything”.
The Tapscotts provide a thorough, balanced and enlightening guide to the next big thing. How big, we shall see.
The book is structured as follow:
Part I: Say You Want a Revolution
- The Trust Protocol
- Seven Design Principles of The Blockchain Economy
Part II: Transformations
- Reimagining Financial Services
- Re-architecting the Firm: The Core and the Edges
- Blockchain Business Models: Making it Rain on the Blockchain
- The Worldwide Ledger of Things: Animating the Physical World
- Solving the Prosperity Paradox: Economic Inclusion and Entrepreneurship
- Rebuilding Government and Democracy
- Culture on the Blockchain
Part III: Promise and Peril
- Overcoming Showstoppers: Ten Implementation Challenges
- Leadership for the Next Era
Book recommended by Tristan Van Iersel
- Title: Blockchain Revolution: How the technology behind bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world
- Authors: Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott
- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Portfolio Penguin (May 10, 2016)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1101980133
- ISBN-13: 978-1101980132
You can order the book on Blockchain-revolution.com
