Blockchains: Not Just Cryptocurrencies

Blockchain technology, sometimes more formally called distributed ledger tech, or DLT, is a multi-functional advance, the economic importance of which is still uncertain.

As a simple matter of definition, DLT refers to a system in which a record of transactions maintains itself digitally in a way not dependent on any one hardware device, and accessible throughout a peer-to-peer network. DLT, pioneered in connection with Bitcoin, and then the other cryptocurrencies, has escaped that bottle, and turns out to have a lot of applications.

Quicker settlement is the easy point to make about blockchains in finance. The likelihood that this will have important consequences for trading is a natural next realization. Distinct, and less intuitive, there is the idea of “smart contracts,” as explained by Vitalik Buterin in his 2013 white paper. It is precisely in order to enable smart contracts that Buterin’s Ether, in contrast to Satoshi’s Bitcoin, is built with a more robust code, encouraging Apps, so that Ethereum has always been more than just Ether.

In September 2017, when the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance came out with a survey on the spread of distributed ledger technology, CCAF found that fully two thirds of its respondents said that they were using some sort of DLT-enabled smart contract capability.

No point to make today, just meditating....

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