In this explanatory piece the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, (the world’s first social science research centre into the economics, politics, sociology, and law of blockchain technology), set out the potential impact of blockchain technology.
It is a great introduction to the technology if you have not yet had the chance to dig into it, to say they are positive on its potential is an understatement. They compare it to the creation of mechanical time.
‘Mechanical time opened up entirely new categories of economic organisation that had until then been not just impossible, but unimaginable. Mechanical time allowed trade and exchange to be synchronised across great distances. It allowed for production and transport to be coordinated. It allowed for the day to be structured, for work to be compensated according to the amount of time worked — and for workers to know that they were being compensated fairly. Both employers and employees could look at a standard, independent instrument to verify that a contract had been performed.’