In 20 years, what do you think people will be writing about the blockchain?

Hindsight is 20/20 and foresight is riddled with uncertainty. In 20 years time, I would expect that people will be writing about other types of revolutionary new technologies that will be addressing the biggest challenges of that era -- such as manufactured particle space clouds to reflect sunlight and cool our planet; or clean nuclear fission powering self contained under-ground human habitats (called Muskvilles); or genome sequenced med-machines that are the “3D printers” of the era which can bypass expensive drug development processes … and the list of potential innovations goes on. 

Currently, I think Blockchain tech (or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), is fundamentally misunderstood by most people, in part, because it’s so closely associated with crypto-currency (also misunderstood). The casino-boom era of cryptocurrency brought a lot of energy, enthusiasm, and attention to Blockchain technologies and perhaps that has led to a period of inflated expectations. Also, too many people attempt to overlay a “blockchain solution” over problems that can be handled perfectly well by a good ole’ database. Having said all this, the ability to create decentralized, immutable ledgers will disrupt many industries and sectors and they’ll be re-organized and reconfigured across global borders in very exciting ways. But it will happen gradually because adoption of enabling technology doesn’t happen over night. 

Eventually, as blockchain technologies become pervasive, they will just be part of the technology landscape lexicon like wifi, routers, java, the internet, and smartphones are today. Private social media communities, like the ones powered by Brainsy, will use blockchain technologies to ensure that contributions into knowledge ecosystems are rewarded equitably -- but most people that benefit from it won’t know (or care) what makes up the underlying enabling technology. And in some ways, that may be the ultimate irony. The more successful blockchain becomes, the less people will care to write about it in 20 years because it’s just another one of those things that makes the world work better than it did before and in the future, these DLT technologies will just seem so obvious.

But hey, only hindsight is 20/20 so I could be totally wrong on all this!