Executive summary

• Author: Bellia, M.; Kounelis, I.; Anderberg, A.; Calès, L.; Andonova, E.; Pólvora, A.; Petracco Giudici, M.; Nascimento, S.; Inamorato dos Santos, A.; Rossetti, F.; Papanagiotou, E.; Nai Fovino, I.; Spirito, L.; Sobolewski, M.
• Pages: 6-7

6

EXECUTIVE

SUMMARY

We have come a long way, in a short period

of time, from the f‌irst views on Bitcoin and

cryptocurren cies to a growing hype and media

coverage capturing public attention, and now

a profusion of funding and experiment ation with

blockchain or, in a broader sense, distributed

ledger technologies.

Blockchain can enable par ties with no par ticular

trust in each other to exchange digital data on

a peer-to-peer basis with fewer or no third parties

or intermediaries. Data could corresp ond, for

instance, to money, insurance policies, contracts,

land titles, medical a nd educational records, bir th

and marriage certif‌ic ates, buying and selling goods

and services, or any transaction or asset that can

be translated into a digital form . The potential

of blockchain to engender wide-ra nging changes

in the economy, industry and so ciety – both now

and tomorrow – is currently being ex plored across

sectors and by a variet y of organisations.

The report Blockchain N ow and Tomorrow brings

together research from dif‌ferent u nits and

disciplinary f‌ields of the Joint Researc h Centre

(JRC), the European Co mmission’s science and

knowledge service. It provides multidimensional

insights into the stat e of blockchain technology by

identifying ongoing and upcoming transformations

in a range of sectors a nd setting out an

anticipatory approach for further exploration .

Moving beyond the hype and debunking some

of its controversies, we aim to of‌fer both

an in-depth and practical unders tanding

of blockchain and its possible applications.

There is space beyond cryptocurrencies

and f‌inancial applications

It is the technology behind cr yptocurrencies –

blockchain – that has been cap turing most of

the attention. B eyond its f‌inancial app lications,

its potential has come to t he foreground

in many other sectors, such as trade and supp ly

chains, manufacturing, energy, creative

industries, healthcare, a nd government,

public and third sect ors.

A global ecosystem is on the rise from

start-ups to capital investment

The rise of blockchain technolog y is witnessed

by both the sharp growt h in blockchain star t-ups

and by the volume of their funding. In ternational

players in the United States are taking the lead,

followed by China and the European Union .

Funding reached over EUR 7.4 billion in 2018

due to the explosion of ICOs and vent ure

capital investment s.

Blockchain does not follow

a ‘one-size-f‌its-all’ model

The potential oppor tunities and challenges of

deploying blockchain technology ar e strongly

related to context , application or sec torial issues.

That is why organisations should not develop

solutions looking for problems, but instead should

f‌ind existing or foreseeable problems in t heir

operations or business, and then look for possible

blockchain solutions.

Executive summary