Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy

widely thought to be multisig (using

multiple key signatures to approve a

transaction), but most users (still early

adopters, not mainstream) have not yet

upgraded to this level of security.

This book is intended as an exploration

of the broader concepts, features, and

functionality of Bitcoin and blockchain

technology, and their future possibilities

and implications; it does not support,

advocate, or offer any advice or

prediction as to the industry’s viability.

Further, this text is intended as a

presentation and discussion of advanced

concepts, because there are many other

“Blockchain 101” resources available.

The blockchain industry is in an

emergent and immature phase and very

much still in development with many

risks. Given this dynamism, despite our

best efforts, there may be errors in the

specific details of this text whereas even

a few days from now information might

be outdated; the intent here is to portray

the general scope and status of the

blockchain industry and its possibilities.

Right now is the time to learn about the

underlying technologies; their potential

uses, dangers, and risks; and perhaps

more importantly, the concepts and their

extensibility. The objective here is to

provide a comprehensive overview of

the nature, scope, and type of activity

that is occurring in the cryptocurrency

industry and envision its wide-ranging

potential application. The account is

necessarily incomplete, prone to

technical errors (though it has been

reviewed for technical accuracy by

experts), and, again, could likely soon

be out-of-date as different projects

described here fail or succeed. Or, the

entire Bitcoin and blockchain technology

industry as currently conceived could

become outmoded or superseded by

other models.

The underlying sources of this work are

a variety of information resources

related to Bitcoin and its development.

The principal sources are developer

forums, Reddit subgroups, GitHub white

papers, podcasts, news media, YouTube,

blogs, and Twitter. Specific online

resources include Bitcoin industry

conference proceedings on YouTube and

Slideshare, podcasts (Let’s Talk Bitcoin,

Consider This!, Epicenter Bitcoin),

EtherCasts (Ethereum), Bitcoin-related

news outlets ( CoinDesk, Bitcoin

Magazine, Cryptocoins News, Coin

Telegraph), and forums (Bitcoin

StackExchange, Quora). Other sources

were email exchanges and conversations

with practitioners in the industry as well

as my experiences attending

conferences, Bitcoin workshops, Satoshi

Square trading sessions, and developer

meetups.

This work is structured to discuss three

different tiers in the way that the

conceptualization of Bitcoin and

blockchain technology is starting to gel:

Blockchain 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. First, I

cover the basic definitions and concepts

of Bitcoin and blockchain technology,

and currency and payments as the core

Blockchain 1.0 applications. Second, I

describe Blockchain 2.0—market and

financial applications beyond currency,

such as contracts. I then envision

Blockchain 3.0, meaning blockchain

applications beyond currency, finance,

and markets. Within this broad category

are justice applications such as

blockchain governance, uplifting

organizations (like WikiLeaks, ICANN,

and DNS services) away from

repressive jurisdictional regimes to the

decentralized cloud, protection of IP,

and digital identity verification and

authentication. Fourth, I consider another

class of Blockchain 3.0 applications

beyond currency, finance, and markets,

for which the blockchain model offers

scale, efficiency, organization, and

coordination benefits in the areas of

science, genomics, health, learning,

academic publishing, development, aid,

and culture. Finally, I present advanced

concepts like demurrage (incitory)

currency, and consider them in the

greater context of the wide-scale

deployment of blockchain technology.

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