What is the main challenge of blockchains? What concrete changes can this technology bring to our society?
The major challenge posed by the emergence of this new technology is the questioning of how our societies function, which are based on the trust of a third party.
La blockchain is a decentralized ledger that eliminates intermediaries in society. This technology gives rise to a new paradigm of trust.
The transparency of these IT tools makes information accessible to everyone for validation by consensus. It is a bit as if we had the ability to see and vote all together on a process, without the need for a trusted third party.
For example, for financial activities, instead of giving the responsibility to a trusted third party (a bank) to manage and validate our transactions, we can now do it together by consensus using blockchains.
This challenges the very foundations of our society. We are used to the «referee» of a match validating a soccer team's goal. It is unthinkable that it should be us, the public, using cameras, who vote to validate the goal or not. Our entire society is built on trusted third parties. Here are the trusted third parties we know: the lottery, our banks, our notaries, our lawyers, our judges, our newspapers, our manufacturers, our insurance companies.
The invention of the blockchain marks the beginning of a process of disintermediation of costly and unnecessary trusted third parties. This represents an estimated economy of 6 billion euros globally !
When the internet first appeared, we thought about creating a more human and fairer civilization, a world in which there would be no prejudice due to economic power, race, or place of birth.
Yet 20 years later, the web has fallen short of its promise between mass commerce, the centralization of personal data, and the concentration of power among a few (Amazon, Google, Facebook).
A world of privileged people has also been created within the internet.
Today, a new technology has emerged, will we once again have to create an asymmetrical world with it?
Maybe not this time...
The ultimate goal of blockchains is to democratize transactions, regardless of their nature. Blockchain offers three main pillars:
-> The monetary transaction for everyone. Regardless of resources, place of residence, political position, race, or country, blockchains can be accessible to everyone. The unbanked can carry out their transactions fairly, without privilege for anyone.
-> Consumption patterns. Thanks to blockchain and IoT (Internet of Things), traceability can be guaranteed, thereby resolving information asymmetries between producers and consumers.
-> Digital voting. By implementing a 100% decentralized, secure, and anonymous system, we can instantly participate in large-scale referendums on any political or other decision.
With these tools and this technology, we can reshape how our world works.
The main challenge of blockchains lies more from a societal perspective and implies deep reflection on what we want to do with this technology.
