Blockchain: The Internet of Value

We can think of blockchain technology as representing the ‘internet of value (internet 2.0), as opposed to the ‘internet of information’ (internet 1.0). Alternatively, some see blockchains as part of web 3.0, a decentralised, read-write-execute web that is fundamentally different from web 1.0 (the read-only web, used to search for information) and web 2.0 (the read-write web of user-generated content). Blockchains have also been portrayed as part of the fourth industrial revolution, following the revolutions inspired, respectively, by steam, electricity and information technology. Blockchain technology may indeed represent a technological revolution—but new techno-economic paradigms do not establish themselves overnight. And the price fluctuations of bitcoin, or the various cryptographic tokens, do not directly reflect the value of the underlying technology; in some respects, indeed, they distract from it. It is also a mistake to assume that blockchain is a necessarily radical—and radically disintermediating—technology. Broadly speaking, we can distinguish between incorporative/sustaining and radical/disruptive applications.