OVER THE HYPE WAVE

We are experiencing an increasing speed in the propagation of blockchain technologies. We feel we are approaching something fundamentally new and we inevitably follow the initial hype wave, on blogs, over the news or on the social networks: rumours on the blockchain phenomenon are everywhere, but only rarely we encounter good explanatory sources. Whoever is curious enough to delve just slightly deeper into what the blockchain really means embarks on a much longer trip.
I myself fall into this second category of curious people. In my case it all started just two years ago, which in blockchain time-frame seems like 200 years. Aware of my interests for new digital technologies some colleagues came to me with a question: what’s a smart contract? I barely knew what it was and my poor explanation quickly became an excuse for more questions which in turn acted on my curiosity as fuel does on fire.
Shortly after I found myself overwhelmed by bookmarks, articles, papers of any sort, all pointing me in a way or another towards the same problem: the blockchain isn’t any technological trend, it’s a huge leap into a new era.

META-SCOPE

I recently finished reading an exquisite publication by William Mougayar “The Business blockchain”, which inspired much of the ideas I am presenting hereby. At pg. 10 the book opens with paragraph entitled “A meta-technology”.
(https://www.amazon.it/Business-blockchain-Practice-Application-Technology/dp/1119300312)
It couldn’t sound shorter, nor more “mysterious”.
Why “meta”? The word comes from the ancient Greek word “μετά”. It is the prefix added to infuse the meaning of something beyond, something further, something wider, more complex.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta).
In other words, by adding “meta” we indicate a concept, a category, a foundational abstraction, but also, the idea of something bigger and superior.

The grammar

So, in simpler terms, what’s a meta-technology like? It’s like a grammar, a technological grammar. It acts exactly as the grammar does on language. According to specific rules we can write and speak with endless variations and yet communicate to and be understood by other people. Equally with the blockchain: it is an overlay technology, it regulates other technologies, as a whole it is compiled and defined by the same technologies it enables.
Indeed, if we examine the “block” of a blockchain we clearly see it is made of several technological layers meshed together: a database for storing information, a software application providing specific functionalities, a network of connected computers, a client to access each of them, a set of tools for monitoring on going and past transactions, and so on.
To some extents, as Mougayar says, it is what the HTML mark-up language was for publishing on the web, what the TCP/IP network protocol was for the Internet.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_protocol_suite)

In the end, by calling the blockchain meta-technology we acknowledge the fact that it is much wider, deeper, more structural and foundational than any other technology. We address its potential to be gradually supplementing if not entirely replacing many business practices, enabling entirely new products and services, sitting at the core of whatever one day we might all be using.

PRIMARY COLOURS

As a meta-technology, the blockchain is at the root multi-layered, multi-faceted, multi-purpose. No definition can entirely grasp its real implications. Nonetheless, I believe we still need some concepts that however simple can help us figure out how to exploit its innovative potential. I myself tried to find a good enough metaphor to embrace its full “meta” attribute. I recurrently use what Mougayar research guided me into: the metaphor of the three primary colours. All the many features of a blockchain could be grouped and seen as the three primary colours it is made of, as its three supporting pillars: technological, business-wise, legal.

1. TECHNOLOGICAL
   Technically-wise a blockchain is a database, a ledger storing information. This ledger though is managed not by a central entity but through a distributed ledger technology (DLT). Oversimplifying, the database is replicated, shared, and synchronized digitally and geographically, spread over multiple computers (the peers) all of which connected to each other creating a network. Therefore, there is no need to have a central administrator, nor a centralized data storage.
   (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_ledger)

2. BUSINESS
   As a distributed ledger / database, this network of peers (connected computers) is in turn used to move any sort of information around its nodes (peers). In other words, the blockchain can interact with any kind of valuable information (money, goods, services or other assets) acting as a value-exchange platform and always in a state of absolute absence of any intermediaries.

3. LEGAL
   Ultimately, since the network as a whole owns the database and it acts as an exchange platform and there are no intermediaries, the network itself also behaves as mediator and validator of all the transactions generating a distributed layer of trust between peers. By recording “blocks” and hashing (linking) them together the network is ordering and securing all the transaction that occurred between the peers, which are identified by a unique fingerprint, the “hash”. All transactions add up forming what resembles a chain, precisely the chain of blocks, the blockchain.

We should take into account all three colours. We should combine them together when analysing any project based on the blockchain. By doing so we will have a better understating of the blockchain and its “meta” scope.

TRUST RELOADED

Countless are the businesses this meta-technology could change. But yet its meta-scope has an even bigger effect. The blockchain deeply affects the way we interact with each other and the single very important thing that it is essentially “reloading” is trust.
I shall stay far from all the spiritual, emotional, philosophical or political connotations of trust and start by simply considering what today we first think of it: the trusted human person, institution or corporation we rely upon to get the job done. We obviously think trust is needed and will always be needed. We take it for granted because without trust no interaction has reasons to happen. Trust is the first and sole prerequisite for connecting with each other.
The blockchain does not eliminate trust. The blockchain reloads entirely the concept of trust.

• WHERE
  The blockchain moves trust from a central person / institution into decentralized multiple entities. The entities requiring trust are also those that can provide trust. The role of our typical trusted person / institutions / corporation is now played by groups of multiple entities called DAOs / DACs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations or Corporations).

• HOW
  What changes with the blockchain is also the way trust is delivered and the way trust is earned. By shifting trust from one single centre point (today’s trusted person, institution, corporation) to distributed multiple points (DAOs / DACs) trust is managed by computers and people not arbitrarily but according to a protocol (the consensus protocol) specified in code and objectively enforced on the blockchain.
  Instead of relying on the typical “top-down centralized pyramid”, the blockchain empowers the network as a whole and each member earns trust, becomes an autonomous shareholder of trust and can ultimately be the provider of trust.
  (https://blockchainhub.net/dao-decentralized-autonomous-organization/)

FAST FORWARDING IN TIME

What’s next? Are we ready to shift into this new era of distributed trust? The hype wave might be the highest but the ecosystem of the blockchain is not ready yet. We will soon though witness which project will succeed and which won’t. In the next 3 - 5 years we will understand how wide-spread this meta-technology will become, how the legislators will react and how we will ultimately exploit it.
In few years unimagined new products and services could be our new decentralized standards of living.
For instance, a couple of very promising projects more and more frequently come to my mind; they both couldn’t exist without the blockchain.

• Golem’s grand vision is to create a worldwide distributed supercomputer. With Golem any user ranging from a single PC owner to a data centre can share and leverage computational power at need, through Golem protocols and pay or get paid (in GNT, Golem Network Tokens) for the service. (https://golem.network)
• Request Network’s mission is to eliminate the need of commercial intermediaries. P2P payments, invoicing, credit factoring, tax statements, accounting, and so on are all activities that could fit into a single “request” to the network which will then act as a distributed netting platform for all accounts payable and receivable connected to it. (https://request.network/#/)

In the end, why considering the blockchain as a meta-technology?
Well, because one day soon we might all be leveraging to some extents its advantages. Maybe sooner than later we will act as distributors of trust and we might not even know there was a blockchain behind all that. And yet, this is another sign of its meta-scope: always a step beyond.