Hey there, it’s a pleasure to have you here. This is an almost 11,000-word essay about blockchain and business.

Before we get started:

1. This piece is an NFT. If you like it, you can collect it. There are only 20 NFTs available and you can collect it here on Mirror in a few clicks. How cool is that?

2. If you want to book me for talks or workshops for your company, talk with me here.

About the authors

Tiago Amaral is the founder of Inevitable, a speaker, author, and advisor in the Web3 and AI fields. He has worked with companies like Reddit, MoonPay, Pinata, Vayner3, and Metaverse Insider. He talks daily about Web3 and AI to more than 48,000+ followers on LinkedIn and gives talks and workshops for companies looking to understand the impacts of these technologies on their businesses.

Kaynã Rodrigues is a builder/developer by trade, having worked with a diverse plethora of areas such as Robotics, AI, VR, and Web3, his main skill is learning things fast and using them to solve problems or sharing them in a digestible way.

Essay Overview

1. 1st Chapter: What is the Blockchain and why does it matter?

2. 2nd Chapter: The technologies behind it

3. 3rd Chapter: Tokenization

4. 4h Chapter: The Blockchain Business Ecosystem

5. 5th Chapter: Current and Future Use Cases

6. 6th Chapter: Developing and Implementing a Blockchain Strategy - Part I

7. 7th Chapter: Developing and Implementing a Blockchain Strategy - Part II

8. 8th Chapter: Blockchain & Governance

9. 9th Chapter: Crossing the Bridge

10. 10th Chapter: The Future

1st Chapter: What is the Blockchain and why does it matter?

Tokenization has become a buzzword in recent years. NFTs went from virtually 0 to a billion-dollar market. The crypto ecosystem, once a niche stronghold of technologists experimenting with things, has suddenly become a potentially important business element for companies.

But why?

Despite all the hype and the often biased and negative headlines in the news, the technology behind all these revolutions is described by some experts as the most important technology since the internet.

The Blockchain ecosystem is still under development, but it brings with it enormous potential for business. Today, we are at a similar time to the beginning of the commercial internet in the early 90s.

At that time, it was difficult to explain what the internet was and its potential uses, as it was still being developed. However, that hasn't stopped innovators from building revolutionary technologies and businesses on top of that infrastructure. Some of these businesses, decades later, would become some of the most valuable companies in the world.

We are at this same tipping point when it comes to blockchain.

The technology still has many challenges and we are still a few years away from mass adoption, but that doesn't mean it's not time to act.

Look at it this way: The blockchain infrastructure today is the worst that will ever exist, just like the internet infrastructure in the 90s. Since then, the internet infrastructure has grown exponentially, which has made it possible for entire businesses to revolutionize their business and relationship models with customers. We are experiencing, before our eyes, a technological turnaround. And not enjoying a moment like that can be not only wasteful but a fatal mistake.

But what, after all, is blockchain, and, more important than that, why is this technology so relevant?

A blockchain is a database that saves encrypted chunks of data. The technology connects these chunks of data with each other to build a chronological single source of truth for the data.

This database works in a decentralized way, distributed in thousands of computers, instead of being concentrated in just one server or a central entity, as in traditional systems.

Databases or continuous chunks of data are nothing new.

In fact, blockchain is, after all, the union of several technologies that have been around for decades but placed in a different way, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

What makes it different from traditional systems has to do with some principles inherent to the technology. And these same principles are revolutionizing - and will revolutionize even more over the next few years - entire industries.

These two principles are Decentralization and Composability.

Decentralization refers to the blockchain's characteristic of working in a more decentralized way than other systems.

As a rule, there is no centralized entity that controls the blockchain, which makes it less susceptible to political interference and more secure against cyber-attacks. Public blockchains, as opposed to the client-server relationship that characterizes traditional network infrastructures, use decentralized consensus mechanisms.

This does not mean, however, that all blockchains are decentralized in the same way. There are greater and lesser degrees of decentralization in each blockchain. All blockchains have to live with The Blockchain Trilemma.

According to this Trilemma, blockchains can only provide 2 out of 3 guarantees at the same time: security, decentralization, or scalability. More scalable, faster, and more secure blockchains will have less decentralization. More decentralized and secure blockchains will have less scalability.

Another key feature is Composability. This characteristic refers to the ability of other systems or third-party applications to use blockchain data and technologies in their own applications or to build new things. To start interacting and building applications on the Ethereum blockchain, for example, a company or developer does not need to ask permission from any central entity or request access to an API. She can simply start using it whenever she wants. Composability is one of the fundamental stones of a concept known as Permissionless Innovation, which we will talk about in later chapters.

An example of this is how OpenSea, the world's largest NFT marketplace, was built. In the end, OpenSea is an application that aggregates smart contracts and tokens and displays them more intuitively to the end-user. To show the collections of NFTs from a blockchain like Ethereum, for example, the marketplace did not need any authorization. And this can also be done by anyone and other marketplaces, which increases competition and innovation. Composability allows builders and companies to create new solutions using blockchain as a building block.

Entering this market at the right time could mean a huge competitive advantage for this decade. And the right time is now. Many people like to argue that blockchain does not solve real use cases. Indeed, we are in a period of great experimentation, but that does not mean that this period will last forever. Market consolidation will come, and it may come faster than many are expecting.

Blockchain will revolutionize entire industries, and within a few years, not having blockchain aspects added to your business will be the same as not using the internet now.

In the following chapters, we will delve into the world of Blockchain for Business. A journey that will guide leaders, executives, and decision-makers through a universe full of possibilities and opportunities.

In the next class, we will better understand some technical aspects of blockchain. And why these aspects will change the facet of businesses. Next, we will understand the phenomenon of tokenization, and why it is so important.

In the next class, we'll delve deeper into the ecosystem around blockchain technologies so you can start analyzing where your business fits best.

Afterward, it will be time to understand the current and future use cases of this technology, in different industries. Then, we will have two chapters about how to develop and apply a blockchain strategy, taking into account your industry and business models.

In the next chapter, we will talk about the relationship between blockchain and governance, and then we will explore How to Cross the Bridge, that is, how to overcome the main obstacles and challenges to put these strategies into practice. Finally, in the last class, we will talk about the possible future of this technology and how to prepare for this inevitable future.

We hope you are as excited as we are about this journey. We are facing a paradigm shift and this undoubtedly brings many doubts and challenges, but also many opportunities. Let's help build this new world.

2nd Chapter: The technologies behind it

Blockchain is not only a technological revolution but also an economic and social one. To understand why this technology can revolutionize various industries, it is important to understand the elements that make it up.

Blockchain does basically three things:

1. Create new undeletable transactions and group them into blocks.

2. Verify each transaction in the block cryptographically.

3. Add the new block to the current immutable blockchain.

The blockchain is nothing more than a distributed secure database. This database is made up of a series of blocks, each of which contains a record of data that has been encrypted and given a unique identity known as Hash.

A hash is a mathematical function that turns an arbitrary-length input into a fixed-length encrypted output. To make it even clearer, let’s look at an example of the Ethereum blockchain.

In the example below, two users transacted using the Ethereum network. The user with the address starting at 0xa4d sent 0.02 ETH to the user with the address starting at 0x53. We'll talk about what these addresses represent next. Here, it is important to note that this transaction generated a transaction hash, that is, a unique function that contains the value sent, the address that was sent and the address that received, and the time, among other information. Thus, each transaction hash is unique and contains various information contained within it.

Reference: https://etherscan.io/tx/0xa323ce2714f248d0500bb9fb287db517518aeeb8ce5f1d26108b981d8a425d2b

Every time a transaction takes place, it must be validated by the computers connected to the network. All computers must agree on this new state, with the new transactions, so that no one computer can make an alteration without the consensus of others. Once completed, a block is added to the blockchain as a permanent record, and each time a block is completed, a new one is generated, all connected to each other in a linear chronology chain. Each block has a hash value with a reference to the preceding block, thus they're all linked together, which means that if one is modified, all subsequent blocks connected to it would be altered, which makes it very difficult to corrupt the network.

But how does the network reach a consensus on the validation of transactions and blocks?

There are basically two major types of consensus: Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS). There are other types of consensus, such as Proof-of-Activity and Proof-of-Burn, but we won't talk about them in this chapter.

The Bitcoin blockchain popularized Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism. Proof-of-Work systems rely on a mining process to keep the network running. On this case, miners use computer power to compete to solve the challenging cryptographic challenges necessary to certify transacted network data. The blockchains that use Proof-of-Work, like Bitcoin, are more decentralized and secure than other networks. Although, they require much more energy to keep the network running.

Proof of Stake (PoS), on the other hand, encourage participants to stake native coins on a network of validator nodes. After closing a transaction block, validator nodes are eligible to be randomly chosen to validate the block data, thus generating the subsequent block. In general, networks that use Proof-of-Stake end up being less decentralized than those that use Proof-of-Work. However, they are more scalable and use less energy.

But how do transactions take place within a blockchain and how can companies build solutions within this ecosystem? Here, we need to talk about an important element of blockchains: Smart Contracts.
Smart Contracts are contract systems used to automatically execute transactions without the need for a company, government or entity to intermediate. They are like a big vending machine. You enter an input - in the case of a vending machine, a coin - choose which item you want and it will perform actions based on that input. In blockchains this happens without the need for intermediaries. You as a user interact directly with the contract.

Smart Contracts are the technology that enables one of the most powerful features of blockchains: composability. Composability functions similarly to Lego bricks, which innovators may utilize to build applications on top of current application architecture.
When businesses use Stripe, Facebook or Google API, they are using composability to build new applications. However, in this case, these APIs are maintained by centralized organizations and they control the access of external agents. Smart contracts and blockchain protocols operate as large public APIs accessible to anyone, anytime, and without needing to ask for permission.
You don't require authorization to develop something on the Ethereum network, for example. All you need is an Ethereum address.

Anyone can start using a blockchain and for that, as a rule, they won't need to ask anyone for permission. Every transaction within the blockchain involves addresses and wallets. Within blockchains, all users are described by alphanumeric strings. In the case of the Ethereum network, for example, this sequence always starts with 0x. This string is known as "Address", like your email address for sending and receiving email, but in this case, for interacting on the blockchain. If I want to send Ethereum or some other token to a company within the Ethereum network, for example, I need to know its address.

In this example, the user with address starting with 0xfcd sent 0.013 ether to the user with address starting with 0xf15.

Reference: https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc5dfe5349cc871649d50dbcc1fc21d680bfffab8df769dc57fbf7e17c59c992c

Here, it is important to talk about another important point, about privacy and security. When created the Bitcoin network, conceived in 2008 and launched in 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto reversed the traditional security logic of the financial world. On a public blockchain, any and all users can audit the network at any time. We may use websites called Block Explorers, such as Etherscan and PolygonScan, to explore transaction history since the beginning of the network, seeing which addresses sent amounts to which addresses, how much, day and time, and so on. However, as a rule, we do not know who owns, for example, this ethereum address.

There are different ways to interact with blockchains and one of them is through wallets. Wallets are the software and physical devices that give users access to these digital assets stored on that system. In addition, they also allow the sending of digital currencies without the need for intermediaries.

In practice, wallets are similar to bank accounts.

After a wallet is created, a “seedphrase” is immediately generated. This seed is a string of 12 to 24 words (in English), which works like a system recovery password.

Soon after the seed is created, the wallet releases a private key, a public key and an address. The private key is like your bank account password. You should not pass it on to anyone, because it is through it that you have access to cryptocurrencies.

The public key, in turn, is like your bank account. Your cryptocurrencies are stored there, and can only be released with the private key. Since it's public, anyone can see it, but no one can move its funds.

Finally, the address is like your bank account number.

There are several different types of wallets and the most well-known and popular on the market are Metamask and Coinbase Wallet.

We mentioned in the previous chapter that there are still many problems to be solved within the blockchain ecosystem. Even though it's a superior technology, that doesn't mean there aren't improvements to be made. One of the great challenges in this industry today is scalability. For this, several companies have sought to create scaling solutions with the most different approaches.

These solutions can be divided into Layer-1 solutions and Layer-2 solutions. Layer 1 basically refers to blockchains themselves, that is, blockchains that seek to have more scalability through protocols or consensus mechanisms other than Proof-of-Work or through Sharding. Blockchains like Solana and Flow are included here.

Layer-2 Scaling Solutions are networks or technologies that run on top of an underlying blockchain protocol to increase scalability and efficiency. The Lightning Network is a Layer-2 of Bitcoin and Polygon is a Layer-2 of Ethereum, for example. These networks absorb part of the data processing for themselves and only then send them to the main network, making it less congested.

There are several different methods used by Layer-2 solutions such as Nested Blockchains, State Channels and Sidechains.

It is important to note that there are several blockchains for different use cases. Bitcoin was the first and Ethereum is the biggest in terms of smart contracts, but we have specific blockchains being developed for the gaming world and real estate, for example. We also have private blockchains being developed for specific uses within corporations.

Anyway, we can say that they have 4 basic elements, which may vary in methodologies and degrees among the different blockchains, but that are present in almost all of them:

• Decentralization: Multiple computers, or nodes, in the distributed network keep track of network information.

• Cryptography: Transactions, blocks and users are protected by encryption.

• Immutability: As a rule, completed transactions are cryptographically signed and added to the blockchain a sequential order. Records cannot be corrupted or altered in any way.

• Tokenization: Transactions within a blockchain are represented by tokens. In the case of the Bitcoin blockchain, it is bitcoin itself, in Ethereum, it is Ether, and in Polygon, it is Matic. These tokens are units of representation and can represent whatever the creators or the network decides and their value is decided by the market.

As we talked about in the previous class, this does not mean that all blockchains work in the same way and that they all have the same level of decentralization. However, having certain degrees of decentralization remains an important aspect of all blockchains.

We hope this chapter was important for you to get an overview of the technologies behind the blockchain and why joining them together is so important.

3rd Chapter: Tokenization

The blockchain world is built upon tokens.

Tokens are, in a nutshell, ownable units of representation. a stock is a token of a company, a deed is a token of a land and a coin is a token of money. While centuries ago, shells and salt were once monetary units, now, in the digital world, we have the possibility to tokenize virtually any asset.

In modern times, tokens such as fiat currencies issued by countries are regulated by central entities such as central banks. They control the issuing, the flow and the goals.
In the case of blockchain, the issuing and the flow of these tokens are ruled by the agnostic laws of the chain they are on.

On the Bitcoin chain, the native token is Bitcoin itself and the network has their rules for how the currency is issued and how much of it there can be.
On the Ethereum chain, the native token is Ether and they also have their own rules for flow and supply.

However, with the advancement of Ethereum and private blockchains, basically, any person or company can use a distributed network to develop and host their own token which can represent anything. And that's where we've seen a lot of innovations popping up.

The world of tokenization offers many possibilities and different industries can apply this technology in different ways. Tokens can be fungible or non-fungible; transferable or non-transferable; backed by objects of the physical world or have their ballast completely digital. They can also have a fixed or unlimited supply, among many other details.

But what does it mean, after all, to tokenize something in the blockchain?

Tokenization, in the context of our chapter, refers to the process of converting something into a digital token that is verifiable and or tradable.

This token can basically represent anything: a document, a certificate, a work of art, a property, and so on. It can also bring the right of ownership over a certain good or asset, even though this is still a nebulous area in terms of regulation and many countries are still trying to create specific legislation to govern this innovation.

At the end of the day, owning a token can mean entitlement to a certain good; access to a particular product or service; or voting rights in a particular community.

Using a token to represent an asset makes it more transferable and divisible, generating increased liquidity for some off-chain assets. It also gives the asset and transactions auditability and transparency, since anyone can verify everything at any time on the blockchain.

This feature has great potential for several sectors. Tokens can represent assets that were not simply divisible before and can be fractionalized at lower transaction costs. Non-divisible items can be tokenized, partitioned, and sold. Of course, this raises regulatory issues.

And since we are talking about tokens, it’s a great moment to understand the difference between Fungible Tokens and Non-Fungible Tokens.

Fungible Tokens are those that are identical to each other. They have the same attributes. They are interchangeable, that is, a token can be replaced by another exactly the same. As an example of fungible tokens, we have 1 dollar bills, for example. Each dollar bill is exactly the same as the other, and they have the same attributes and the same value. In the blockchain world, examples of fungible tokens are bitcoin and ether.

Non-Fungible Tokens, on the other hand, are unique. Each of them has unique attributes and they differentiate themselves from all other tokens, even within the same ecosystem. As a rule, NFTs cannot be replaced by tokens of the same type, as they differ from each other.

Tokens that represent art or certificates, for example, non-fungible tokens. Cryptocoins, on the other hand, are fungible.

From a regulatory point of view, there are still many advances to be made. Faced with the infinite possibilities that tokenization brings, many governments and lawmakers are still trying to understand how to regulate each type of token, as they can be different from each other. Community access tokens are different from a token representing a property, which is different from a token representing a collection of avatars.

Tokenizing something, in our context, means mapping an asset to a digital equivalent.

To do that, a smart contract is written to map the ownership of the asset to tokens that can be issued and distributed. After distribution, the contract also is responsible for checking the ownership of tokens to perform distribution of gains, grant permission to vote, allow access to a service, for example. Since it’s a smart contract that is performing that logic and they are immutable and forever in the blockchain, everything is intrinsically transparent, sovereign and autonomous.

Over the next few years, millions of assets are expected to be tokenized and this could have major repercussions across multiple industries. Asset tokenization brings even more liquidity to the market, making it global by default. With everything on the blockchain and transactions happening with tokens, an investor from Switzerland can easily buy tokens representing equity in a startup based in Chile. Or an Indian investor could easily buy tokenized square feets of a building in Brazil.

Any tangible item or stake may be tokenized and divided into tokens that can be exchanged on the market. If we were to tokenize an apartment, a smart contract generates a token and correlates the value of the real asset to it. The ownership right to that apartment could be shared and sold to several different owners. This creates a whole new dynamic in the investment world. In markets where minimum investments are generally high for the average citizen, such as real estate, being able to invest in fractions of real estate would bring millions of new investors to the market and great possibilities for greater liquidity.

One of the main use cases for tokenization – and also one with one of the biggest regulatory challenges – is the use of tokens to represent securities. Tokens linked to smart contracts could change the way dividends are received, but also IPOs and fundraising and provide more real-time transactions.

Smart contracts can help with real estate rights management and resolution. Once real estate is tokenized, it could be readily registered, managed, and traded person-to-person. Each property's data might be stored on a blockchain to give a globally shared data set on prior owner, repairs, amenities, and transactions.
Today, real estate is illiquid, therefore purchasing and selling it is a long, bureaucratic process. The ownership doesn't change rapidly. Using blockchain and tokenization, companies could reduce bureaucracy, market friction, and transfer costs. Real estate owners might sell fractional shares of their units using tokens. The tokenization would make it easier to issue and sell these assets at a fraction of the cost.

Owners might sell fractional tokens of an apartment they desire to buy to acquire financing without a bank or private loan. Token holders would be co-investors and could collect fractional rent. People who were barred from such investments for economic reasons can now invest in a portion of a full unit, making the market more inclusive. Smart contracts automatically manage rent collection and property transfer.

Finally, another possible use case would be people tokenization. As strange as this may sound, this is a potentially billion-dollar market. Today, fans of celebrities and influencers spend time and money to follow their idols and hardly receive anything in return. By tokenizing an athlete, for example, thousands of fans could buy shares of tokens from that athlete, betting that he can become a superstar. Imagine having bought Lebron James or Neymar tokens at the beginning of their careers? The same goes for artists and influencers. And that same idea can be applied to artistic creations and intellectual property. Imagine if you could have bought Harry Potter book tokens as soon as they were released. The entertainment and creators economy will be one of the main responsible for the mass adoption of this technology.

Tokenization will be present in all spheres of our lives. Not as an invader creeping in, but as the new and inevitable normal.

4h Chapter: The Blockchain Business Ecosystem

Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate. Enterprise blockchain, for example, provides a way to securely store and validate transaction data. This allows for a foundation of trust and robust transaction processing. However, enterprises face a challenge when it comes to understanding blockchain and then using it. The problems range from figuring out what the use cases are to hiring the right people and everything in between. Therefore, it is important to understand the business ecosystem around blockchain.

Before we explore the Blockchain Landscape, it’s important to understand the different types of blockchain. In previous chapters, we said that the blockchain is like a public database and that it allows so-called Permissionless Innovation. However, this is not necessarily true for every type of blockchain. With the advancement of the industry, other types of blockchains have been developed to meet different types of needs. Let's analyze them:

To begin, we have Public Blockchains, which are distributed ledger systems that are available to the public. They make it so that anybody may utilize the network, create new features for it, join the network, and even become a miner. Everyone is free to join a public blockchain without bias or censorship. All participants in a public blockchain may see every detail of every transaction being processed on the ledger at any time. Examples of Public Blockchains include Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Blockchains that only a select few people have access to are called Private Blockchains. Joining these blockchains requires individuals to first receive authorization from the network's administrator. All transactions conducted on a private blockchain are confidential and are only viewable by authorized users of the network.

These blockchains are vital for businesses that exchange and collaborate on data, but these companies are understandably wary of entrusting sensitive company information to the public ledger. Private blockchains are much more centralized than public ones since their operators have complete say over who uses them and how they are governed by design. Examples of Private Blockchains include Ripple and MultiChain.

The ecosystem of a hybrid blockchain has characteristics of both public and private blockchains. This describes how the hybrid blockchain incorporates both the privacy and security of private blockchains and the openness of public blockchains. Hybrid blockchains are able to communicate with different blockchain protocols and can run on several blockchains at the same time. IBM Food Trust is an example of a hybrid blockchain.

And finally, Consortium Blockchain, those that are built in a federated way.
They make it such that a new player on the block doesn't have to start from scratch but can immediately begin sharing information and connecting to the already built infrastructure. Corporations may save time and money on development with the aid of consortium blockchains, which provide them with ready-made solutions.
The consortium blockchain is implemented in a variety of sectors, including supply chain management, healthcare, and insurance. Quorum and Corda are examples of consortium blockchains.

Now that we made clear the different types of blockchains, let’s explore the Blockchain Landscape.

The Blockchain Landscape can be divided into 8 big categories:

• Protocols

• Custody, Wallet, and Digital Assets

• Security

• Infrastructure and Development

• Mining

• Exchanges

• Fungible and Non-Fungible Tokens

• Payments

• Gaming

Let’s dive into each one of them.

Protocols are basic rules that tell computers how to share information. In the blockchain field, they set up the structure of information that will compose the blocks and how applications and smart contracts will interact with them.

Protocols are not only used in blockchain, of course. They are essential to how the internet works because they show computers how to send and receive data from each other. Email and websites are all based on protocols that run under the surface. Protocols are like the backbone of blockchain infrastructure and they have different features according to the goal of that blockchain. The protocol will set the rules for various aspects of the blockchain, such as transfers and gas fees. Examples of protocols include Hyperledger, Multichain, and Corda.

Custody, wallet, & digital asset services include companies providing crypto asset storage, security, management, and investment products. Players here include institutional providers such as Paxos, Fireblocks, and BlockFi, and cryptowallet providers such as Ledger, Trezor, and Metamask.

In the Security category, there are companies that analyze blockchain activity to keep an eye out for suspicious transactions. Some of the most important players in this category include Certik and Chainalysis.

In the infrastructure and development category, we have companies that provide the underlying technology for developers and other companies to build applications. Examples of this category include Alchemy, Consensys, and Pinata.

Mining includes companies providing software and hardware for crypto mining. Players here include Bitmain and Bitfury.

Exchanges include companies that provide cryptocurrency buying and selling through their platforms. Some of the biggest players in this category Binance, Coinbase, and FTX.

In the Fungible and Non-Fungible Tokens category we have companies that provide services, infrastructure, and platforms for creation, minting, trading, and analytics of tokens. Examples include OpenSea and Dapper Labs.

Payments include companies building solutions for users and companies to pay with crypto, or to accept crypto payments. Big players here include MoonPay and BitPay.

Finally, in the gaming category, we have companies applying blockchain technology to the gaming industry, like Animoca Brands and Mythical Games.

The potential for new business activities enabled by blockchain is just getting started. Think about all the data companies and users create today on mobile devices, online platforms, and physical assets. You’ve heard before: Data is the new oil. And the blockchain can help both users and companies to monetize these data assets. Today this type of monetization is performed by a few players that concentrate huge amounts of data. With the composability aspect of blockchain, the possibility to monetize this data, for both users and professionals, brings a whole new set of benefits.

Each one of these categories is related to each other and once a company is building in one of them, it’s much easier to capture value from others. Coinbase, for example, started with an exchange, but today it has business units in categories like custody, infrastructure and development, fungible and non-fungible tokens, and payments. FTX as well started as an exchange and later expanded to custody, fungible and non-fungible tokens, and gaming.

Traditional companies must think about how their existing resources and capabilities will fit into their blockchain strategy. Companies like GameStop and DraftKings launched their own NFT marketplaces because this strategy made sense given their existing products and customers. Cloudflare, for example, is now offering a set of web3-related services inside the infrastructure category. The same goes for AWS.

Each of these categories has its own subcategories and each subcategory brings its own challenges. The fact is: The blockchain industry has a lot of challenges and different players are needed so these challenges can be addressed. And each of them will have its own focus depending on the industry.

Fungible and Non-Fungible Tokens, for example, bring a huge set of opportunities for businesses. Companies are building solutions for no-code NFTs creation, tokenized community management, and customer engagement management solutions that use web 3 native technologies. Inside protocols, we are seeing a lot of different solutions emerge, like Unlock Protocol and Lit Protocol, that want to build bridges between Web 2 applications and Web 3 technologies.

And of course, this is not an exhaustive list of categories. A whole new large set of new categories are emerging, such as education, professional services, and marketing. Brave, for example, started building a web browser focused on privacy and security and then expanded its reach, developing its own cryptowallet.

Regardless of the chosen strategy, there are now thousands of opportunities within the blockchain ecosystem and enterprises can use their distribution strengths and existing products to enter this new space.

5th Chapter: Current and Future Use Cases

It can sometimes be difficult to see how blockchain technology can be applied in practice.

For enterprises, it's not always so clear how this whole decentralization, tokens, and crypto thing might actually apply to their business. The fact is: There is a lot of hype around this technology today. And it is difficult to separate what is a signal from what is noise. Blockchain is quite exciting, but just like any other technology, for it to be truly valuable, it must solve problems and provide value to companies and people.

With that in mind, today we will present how different industries are using blockchain technology to provide value to their partners and audience. Starting with one of the biggest use cases today: Decentralized Finance.

Decentralized Finance, also known as DeFi, is a financial ecosystem that aims to decrease or eliminate the need for middlemen, using the blockchain as its core technology.

Decentralized finance enables individuals to conduct transactions directly with other people rather than via centralized entities such as banks. DeFi’s promise is to make transactions faster and cheaper.

DeFi has been invading different aspects of the financial world in the last decade, from borrowing and lending to insurance. Today, for example, Decentralized Exchanges allows users to buy, sell, trade, and cryptocurrencies on autonomous platforms, everything being processed by smart contracts, without the need for a large intermediary as in the case of traditional exchanges.

The supply chain is another area where blockchain might have a significant impact. Execution problems are sometimes difficult to find in real-time in older ERP systems, which are extensively used by businesses for supply chain management, and it may be tough to resolve the issue throughout the full chain of operations.

Blockchain has the potential to significantly enhance supply chains by allowing quicker and more cost-effective product delivery, increasing product traceability and boosting partner coordination.

Several assets, like orders, invoices, inventories, bills, and so on, may be assigned unique IDs through blockchain, allowing for much simpler tracking along the chain. With blockchain, each new step of a transaction can be tracked since it is uploaded to the blockchain and is auditable at any moment, in real time, by different players.

To safeguard customers from counterfeit, stolen, or hazardous items, pharmaceutical businesses must identify and track prescription pharmaceuticals, according to the FDA - Food and Drug Administration, the USA federal agency reponsible to control the quality of products such as food and medicines.

In this situation, the blockchain may serve as a single truth ledger for exchanging complicated information in real time not just with regulators, but also with pharmacy managers, contract manufacturers, doctors, patients, academic researchers, and R&D partners, among others.

Most current medicine track and trace systems are centralized, through entities such as the FDA, resulting in data privacy, transparency, and authenticity difficulties in supply chains.

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Assume that you are the leader of a firm located in the United States, and you are faced with a crisis: a new product that you have just introduced has a quality fault in a portion manufactured at a factory in France. Your clients and partners are worried and sending a lot of emails to your support team.

Instead of having to deal with many different databases from many different sources, the first thing you do with the blockchain is trace all of the parts that have been produced in that plant through the blockchain, and in a minute you can know exactly the list of items to be recalled: after all, you have all of your supply chain transactions and movements traced in real time, thanks to the blockchain.

You then request an immediate recall of the specific components impacted by the issue. If a corporation finds a defective product, the blockchain allows the company and its supply chain partners to track the product, identify all suppliers engaged in it, identify manufacturing and shipping pieces linked with it, and recall it effectively.

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Another powerful use case for blockchain is Digital Property Rights. As we increasingly transact our lives into the digital world, we will place more value on our native digital assets or physical assets that have representation in the digital world. Today millions of users live off of their digital personas and entire businesses have businesses and assets basically in the digital world.

The question is: The way the internet was built until today has meant that these assets are in the hands of a few large platforms that hold a lot of power in a concentrated way. The photos we post on social media are not ours. The articles we publish on some platforms are not ours. The same goes for videos and other assets, which can be taken down easily by any centralized company.

Today, we still make several distinctions between the offline and online world. This differentiation will become less and less clear over the next few years. Today, many people already give much more value to their profiles on social networks than to physical assets. Young Roblox or Fortnite players often value their virtual assets and virtual personas more than their offline items. With blockchain, users can truly own their profiles and their content and businesses can truly own their digital assets.

Blockchain is also the technology behind a new trend called De-IP, or Decentralized IPs. Using NFTs as the core technology, users and brands are finding new ways to build brands and explore intellectual property in non-conventional ways. Owners of tokens from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, for example, can explore the images of their apes for commercial purposes and explore their IP. This resulted in new brands and businesses being created using the images of the apes, like beer or fast food companies.

Anything that needs to be verified can be verified in a more trustful and decentralized way using blockchain technology. Think about certifications. Today, nothing prevents a user from adding on LinkedIn that they studied at a specific institution. To verify that, a company would need to check that information with the organization. The organization would verify that information in a centralized database that only a few users have access to.

With blockchain technology, these credentials can be on-chain and can be verified at any time, by anyone. More than this, because they rely on smart contracts, other professionals or companies can use that same technology to build new things, like gated content or specific events or experiences accessible only to people that have that certification.

And the blockchain can bring new business models and different ways of building things in life sciences as well. Just like in the cases of DeFi and De-IP, we see an emerging field in Decentralized Science, or De-Sci. DeSci Labs, for example, is building tools to enable scientists to form Autonomous Research Communities, and these communities are building on-chain scientific records.

Molecule, for example, is a decentralized biotech protocol that is constructing a web3 marketplace for research-related intellectual property. Finally, VitaDAO is Decentralized Autonomous Organization for community-owned and decentralized drug development initiatives.

Blockchain technology can change entire industries. Despite all the hype, that doesn't mean everything will be decentralized. But of course, entire business models will be adapted to have points of greater or lesser decentralization, and this decentralization will be powered by blockchain and its ancillary technologies such as smart contracts, NFTs, and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations.

6th Chapter: Developing and Implementing a Blockchain Strategy - Part I

Now it’s time to explore how to develop and implement a blockchain strategy. The first question to ask yourself is to try to figure out what problem you are trying to solve. Blockchain is a revolutionary technology, but that doesn't mean it has to be used at all. In many cases, if incorporated the wrong way, it can end up hurting the user experience or your internal processes.

Think about the main characteristics of blockchain: Distributed Consensus, Traceability, Verifiability, Programmability, and Tokenization. If your business needs to leverage any of these areas or use any of these features to provide more value, it makes perfect sense to start incorporating blockchain into your strategy.

Before trying to create a strategy, it's important to try to answer one simple question: Why? Why do you think it makes sense to use blockchain in your business strategy? How can this technology really bring more value to your users or clients?

For example, Distributed Consensus can help to provide an end-to-end visualization of different processes and players involved in your value chain. This way, the blockchain can be a single source of truth that embraces all the value chain, different systems, and different types of information. Instead of relying on dozens of different systems, managers have just one source of information.

And that source can be accessible not only by that company but also by other companies and stakeholders in the ecosystem. In the supply chain industry, for example, it’s hard to get real-time visibility of different parts of the chain due to the number of different stakeholders, platforms, and so on. All these platforms and players could use a blockchain, both private or public, to have a single source of truth with all the information needed.

Blockchain is also a great way to improve traceability. Just like in the example of Distributed Consensus, today several industries rely on different systems to trace processes, transactions, and so on. For NFTs, for example, using platforms like OpenSea and Etherscan we can see all the transaction history of a given item, everything in just one place, with the price, timestamp, fees, and who sold and who bought the item.

Another area blockchain can improve existing processes is the verifiability of ownership. This is a special feature for industries like ticketing or accreditation. Since everything is registered on the blockchain, it’s easier to identify who is the real owner and if that specific item is legit.

Programmability can be a very important feature if the company wants to build new products or a more open innovation ecosystem. Since almost all the blockchains run on smart contracts, other players can use existing assets to build new things. Think about how this change the way companies innovate. The meaning of Open Innovation can be deeply impacted by this. A smart contract can be the starting point of a whole set of innovations that are built for third-party players.

And finally, tokenization can help the business to bring more liquidity to items, making those items more accessible to different types of customers.

Using blockchain just because is one of the best ways to create a project that will not yield any results. That’s why thinking about which problems you are trying to solve is so important. Another important point is: it’s not necessary to go all-in. Blockchain technology is just getting started, so it’s difficult for an enterprise to just integrate it into its existing processes and suite of products.

Talking about decentralization, for example, is great in theory, but very difficult to achieve in practice. The objective of implementing blockchain in any organization should be to disturb the current system as little as possible.

Thinking about this, there are 5 principles that your organization can follow before deciding to jump in on implementing a blockchain strategy. Let’s start with the first one: Blockchain is the backbone, not the protagonist.

Sometimes leaders get so excited with the idea of using blockchain in their business unit that they can end up forgetting that blockchain, just like the internet, will work the best when it’s invisible. These days, saying that a company is using blockchain can also work as a marketing tool to get some attention and headlines. But seeing the technology as the protagonist can be dangerous.

Instead of thinking about the value your business can create through that technology, the main focus will be to implement it just to try to show that you’re innovative. Blockchain, just like any other technology, is more valuable as it gets more invisible. We only notice the internet when the internet is not there. The same must apply to the blockchain. It must be a powerful, invisible layer that is bringing value to your processes, customers and so on, but not as a means on its own.

The second principle is: Blockchain must solve a real problem. Of course, we are still in an experimentation phase in many aspects, but this doesn’t mean that we don’t need to push the space forward. Blockchain will go mainstream when average people and companies get value from it. Don’t start by asking “how can we use blockchain in our business?”. Rather, ask yourself: “Which are our biggest challenges. Can we use blockchain to address some of these challenges?”. Starting from a problem perspective rather than a technical one can make a huge difference.

Also, keep in mind that maybe implementing the tech itself will not be your biggest challenge. As it happens all the time when we try to implement a new technology or a new solution, handling different stakeholders can be difficult. Some professionals will think that this new technology is no more than a fad. Others will not be happy to learn new processes and standards. At the end of the day, breaking down these barriers can be much more difficult than applying the technology.

Also, education is very important. Not only for your employees but for the partners as well. Blockchain, after all, is a great technology to build collaboration at scale. But all the participants must know why they are doing that.

Finally, it’s very important to establish goals. If even your goal doesn’t involve any financial return in the short term, learning must be stated as the primary goal of your blockchain initiatives. Of course, these goals will be directly related to the problems you’re trying to solve. If you want to have better traceability of the components of your supply chain, specific metrics can be created to address this goal.

All this takes us to the point that: every blockchain initiative must have an MVP spirit. Of course, some companies are more blockchain-native and will have this technology at their core, but this is not true for 99% of the businesses out there. Making fast experimentation, cheap investments, and gathering results quickly is a great way to know if your blockchain strategy should be expanded, reviewed or terminated.

7th Chapter: Developing and Implementing a Blockchain Strategy - Part II

Let’s move on and explore possible business models and also different aspects of team building to develop and implement a blockchain strategy inside your organization.

Remember that blockchain is a revolutionary technology that must, at the end of the day, solve a real problem. And this technology is especially powerful to solve problems regarding 5 areas: trade; ownership; trust; tokenization; and multiparty consensus.

Understanding blockchain is the first step. But knowing how to use it inside your organization is an entirely different game. Blockchain technology will fundamentally revolutionize the way businesses interact and the entire financial landscape. It can minimize process cost and friction, provide immutable transaction records, and enable near-instantaneous updating of transparent ledgers with near real-time finality. It can also significantly affect the design of an organization's existing procedures.

Two possible ways to approach blockchain technology inside your organization is to apply the same mindset of other innovation ventures. The first one is to start a venture 100% separated from the existing structure, that can work on building, experimenting, and failing, inside the blockchain ecosystem without hurting the existing business models. The other possible strategy is to attach blockchain technology to existing products, but always putting the customer first and using blockchain to provide value.

Now let’s explore some possibilities in terms of blockchain business models. The first one is Blockchain-as-a-service, where companies provide blockchain as an infrastructure for other companies and professionals to build on top of it.

Usually, this business model follows the same patterns as software-as-a-service. Some of the best examples of this business model are Alchemy, Tatum, and Pinata. Alchemy and Tatum provide a set of tools for web3 development integrated with a lot of different blockchains. Pinata builds infrastructure for companies that want to leverage NFTs.

Another possible business model is to focus on Token Economy. This can be done by building its own blockchain or using tokens as a central part of the ecosystem.

Here we have a lot of examples, like Polygon, that makes so many things that could be inserted into all the business models categories, but we are inserting it into Token Economy because the company uses its token Matic as a central point of incentive between all its ventures.

Another example is the Unlock Protocol, an open-source protocol that creators can use to create memberships with NFTs, token-gated content, and more. Even blockchains can be an example of the Token Economy business model since its participants will choose to participate in that ecosystem to get rewarded with its token. Solana is an example of this. And other companies use tokens inside other ventures to build new experiences and business models based on existing products, like socios with fan tokens, and Dapper Labs with NBA Top Shot.

Other possible business models are Marketplaces and Exchanges. These can be comparable to more traditional business models, but we can find some differences.

For example, OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace, has a fee of just 2.5% on transactions made inside the platform, which is significantly lower than marketplaces in other industries. This happens because OpenSea is built on the top of smart contracts and as we saw in previous chapters, smart contracts allow permissionless innovation, which increases competition and, as a result, decreases the fee prices. And exchanges, of course, work as an intermediary between users that want to buy crypto. Some of the biggest players are Binance and Coinbase.

And finally, another possible business model is to provide Blockchain Professional Services, with companies like IBM and Accenture. Here, the company will provide consulting services for other companies that want to embrace the blockchain world.

Building a team for blockchain ventures can be tricky. It’s like building a team for internet ventures… In the 90s. Overall, the professionals needed in a blockchain venture will share some titles with professionals from existing ventures: marketing, developers, business developers, product managers, security analysts, and so on.

Although, there are important details to pay attention to.

Marketing can have some nuances in blockchain. The same goes for developers. You may outsource smart contract development or build a team of developers in-house. You can also need audit professionals or you can outsource this to a specialized company.

The scope of the team can vary a lot. The team building will be also affected by, for example, which network will be used to build the project. If you’re building on Ethereum, maybe you will not need a big business development team. If you’re building in other platforms like Solana, Flow, or Polygon, maybe it’s a good idea to have a strong business development team to be in touch with the teams behind these blockchains to have more dedicated support. Another example is: if the project involves building on smart contract standard functions, having a huge external audit partner may not be necessary. But if your project requires different and custom functions inside the smart contract, relying on an external partner to audit everything will probably be a good idea.

8th Chapter: Blockchain & Governance

Let’s now explore how to establish governance mechanisms in blockchain projects.

This is not a very glamorous task and one that is often neglected by companies that want to take their first steps in this space.

Establishing a governance mechanism can be a paradox when it comes to blockchains. As a rule, blockchains were made to be decentralized and not depend on centralized entities. However, this can be difficult for large corporations, as it means losing some control over processes and technologies. In these cases, hybrid or private blockchains can be important, although, for many users and organizations, this goes against the ethos of why this technology was created.

There are fundamental differences between permissionless blockchains, such as Ethereum, and permissioned blockchains, such as private and hybrid. In Permissionless Blockchains, tokens play an important role, as they are used as an incentive for users and validators. On permissioned blockchains, tokens may not be at the core of the strategy, as these blockchains can bring other types of validation and economic design.

On permissionless blockchains, the consensus mechanisms are based on economic incentives, like the fees the miners of the Ethereum blockchain receive when users use the network. On permissioned blockchains, the consortium would need to define the incentives and potential penalties for those who didn’t follow the rules.

This is another fundamental difference between these two models: On permissionless blockchains, the network has some sort of self-management and coordination, since the rules are built and the consensus mechanism is decentralized. However, enterprise companies can have a hard time just giving up that much control to decentralized users and entities. Because of this, enterprises can follow a more semi-autonomous pattern, instead of relying on 100% autonomous mechanisms that could hurt their business model or bring regulatory issues.

Blockchain Governance can be divided into 3 main areas, containing Technology, Business, and Network. Each of these brings questions that the company and its stakeholders may respond to in order to decide which is the best model to follow.

Inside the Technology aspect, the company will need to respond:

• Which security aspects need to be addressed?

• How could the implementation of blockchain technology in our processes affect our compliance with user data regulation laws?

• What types of additional technology will we need to hire or build?

• How can we build a simple and intuitive User Experience?

• What kind of professional and support will be required for us to implement and keep these new processes running?

Inside the Business aspect, the company will need to respond:

• Which will be our business model?

• How the implementation of blockchain may affect our existing business units?

• Which players will be involved in creating, maintaining and securing the network?
  What are the monetization criteria for each of the different players - contributors, users, partners, etc - within the project?

• What regulatory aspects will need to be followed so that it is possible to implement blockchain in our processes without harming compliance?

• What teams and processes need to be built so that we have the necessary quality assurance?

Inside the Network aspect, the company will need to respond:

• Will we use a permissionless or a permissioned blockchain?

• Will we use a public, private, or hybrid blockchain?

• How do new participants enter this blockchain? What are the entry and stay criteria? Which kind of access each different type of player will have?

• What will be the incentives for maintaining the network?

• How will partner and user data be handled within the network?

• How does the type of network we are choosing relate to current regulation and data protection laws?

Of course, these are just some overall questions every company would need to ask before taking decisions about a blockchain project. This is not a complete list and new questions should always be asked.

Remember that, although sometimes we talk about blockchain as just one infrastructure, we are talking about hundreds of possible different infrastructures. Different blockchains will bring different features and different use cases that will have less or more fit according to diverse industries.

For example, companies inside industries such as entertainment, media, and creators’ economy, can use blockchains such as Ethereum, Polygon, or Flow, since these blockchains have a good fit for users and companies of these industries.

On the other hand, industries such as healthcare and energy, which are much more regulated, may use hybrid or private blockchains to build innovative ecosystems that will connect dozens of different players without compromising data and user data protection.

It’s always good to remember that dozens of blockchains are available and each of them can have features that will be more or less useful, depending on the use cases.

9th Chapter: Crossing the Bridge

As we stated in previous chapters, sometimes implementing blockchain technology itself is not the biggest challenge. The biggest challenge can be related to cultural aspects.

Every new technology brings challenges. Professionals don't like to change the tools they already know and master. This becomes even more delicate when we are talking about a technology like blockchain, which has inherently challenging aspects, such as decentralization aspects, which in itself is already a great challenge for managers.

There is also another huge challenge: Blockchain technology is directly associated with other fields, such as crypto. And crypto is a very controversial field, with billions of dollars in volume, but also a lot of skepticism from millions of people and a lot of scams, given its novelty.

There are 3 main strategies to cross the bridge between a non-blockchain company into its first steps inside this new world. The first one is education, directly related to what we are doing right now.

It can be very difficult to understand the real powers of blockchain if your employees do not know why this technology is so important. We are not talking here about specific technical education that will talk about nodes and staking, but overall, if your company wants to start blockchain ventures, your employees should understand the basics and know why Bitcoin was created, what are the main differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum, the different types of consensus mechanisms and so on.

There is a lot of noise out there when it comes to blockchain and crypto. If we focus on the wrong side of things, employees will keep being skeptical. It’s your job to build blockchain and web3 fluency inside your organization. Understanding the basics will be the first step so your employees can think about solutions that solve real problems.

The second strategy is related to the first one, but it takes a step further. Reading books, watching videos, and attending speaking engagements are great to create a foundation, but only by getting our hands dirty, we can really learn in practice. I’m not talking here about launching a huge blockchain project next week. I’m talking about small things, like employees learning how to set up a crypto wallet, interacting with Web3 and Blockchain applications such as Lens Protocol or Mirror, or using Etherscan. I’m also not talking about trading or buying tokens to make a profit. This is, usually, a bad idea and can be very traumatic. Users can interact with hundreds of web3 and blockchain applications without spending a dime and this will show them, in practice, how these applications work, and hopefully, bring insights on how they can apply that to their day-to-day jobs to create value for your customers.

Of course, there are security concerns when it comes to getting our hands dirty in a space such as this. Here, it’s important to have clear and specific guidelines for users so they don’t link their wallets to websites without knowing exactly what they are doing, or to make it clear they should never share their seedphrase with anyone.

That’s why starting small is so important. To build blockchain and web3 fluency, your company needs to be consistent. This type of knowledge does not become natural in a matter of weeks. It takes time and it takes active effort from both the organization and the employee. And that’s our third strategy: go after some low-hanging fruits.

A lot of companies think they need to embrace blockchain as soon as possible because of fear of missing out. This may be true for some players, but it’s not true for 99% of companies out there. Starting small, building a blockchain project that will run independently from the organization and that will bring insights really fast is a great way to start. The Nike case may be a good example of this. The company started its venture into Web3 and Blockchain by buying digital NFT studio Artifact, and using it as an asset to accelerate the company’s digital transformation and experimentation in fields like NFTs and AR. The core business, the one that produces billions of dollars in revenue for Nike, it’s still there, running normally.

Of course, acquiring a company is just one of the strategies. There are dozens of other strategies that companies can follow to test web3 and blockchain initiatives, such as joining a DAO, building a blockchain lab, inserting blockchain into one tiny specific business unit, buying digital assets, and more.

10th Chapter: The Future

So we finally reached our 10th and last chapter of this series! Throughout this series we saw what is the blockchain, the technologies behind it, what is tokenization, the blockchain business ecosystem, current and future use cases, how to develop and implement a blockchain strategy, blockchain and governance, and how to cross the bridge.

It’s fair to say that we may still see just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how blockchain technology will impact the world. It’s like talking about the internet in the 90s. Looking at the first steps of the commercial internet, it was not obvious to predict all the innovations that would unfold in the coming decades. We believe that the same can be said about blockchain. The use cases we have today and all the infrastructure and technology can be seen as barebones of what will be built throughout the next decades. If today blockchain is seen as a new technology or a separated business unit inside organizations, decades from now blockchain will be an invisible layer, responsible for handling transactions between users and companies in a smooth way.

However, it’s also important to bring up another point here. Sometimes, we end up focusing too much on which will be the innovation, and what will change. As Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, would say: ““I very frequently get the question: 'What's going to change in the next 10 years?' And that is a very interesting question; it's a very common one. I almost never get the question: 'What's not going to change in the next 10 years?' And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two -- because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.”

So yeah, we know that blockchain may change a lot of aspects of our businesses. But how about those that will not change and that blockchain can make better?

Which aspects of your customers today will not change throughout the next 10 years? Those things that are deeply important to them and that new technologies will just amplify. These are the things where blockchain will have even more impact. Just like the internet came to make human connection and other processes such as fast delivery more impactful, blockchain can make existing desires and challenges your customers already have even more apparent. Then, technology becomes just a means to achieve that.

Based on this, a good exercise to make is to identify three things that will not change in your industry in the next years. And then, just later, think about how blockchain will optimize this. Remember to not just try to include blockchain technology in your business because of the hype or fear of missing out. That’s when analyzing the core features of blockchain technology becomes important. Blockchain is a superior technology for some use cases, such as tracking and multi-party consensus, so the solutions your company will be must be a match between the things that won’t change and the core features blockchain brings.

In 10 years, the On-Chain economy will be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. On-Chain data will become even more important and entirely new business models will rise from the intersection of on-chain and off-chain data. Security concerns and scams will also arise, but new tools will address how users and companies interact with blockchain, bringing a more secure space.

Products that are not even born yet will invade our lives and become indispensable parts of our companies. Blockchain will become invisible and ubiquitous.

Decentralized companies will born and become billion-dollar businesses. Incumbents will need to embrace some sort of decentralization to keep relevant. The battle between centralization and decentralization will become even more apparent. They will serve different types of users.

Millions of companies and users will still be skeptical about blockchain. They will keep saying it is useless, it’s a scam, it’s a pyramid scheme. Others will embrace it. And they will reap the rewards of being early adopters of such a revolutionary technology.

2 Final Points

1. This piece is an NFT. If you like it, you can collect it. There are only 20 NFTs available and you can collect them here on Mirror in a few clicks. How cool is that?

2. If you want to book me for talks or workshops for your company, talk with me here.

About the authors

Tiago Amaral is the founder of Inevitable, a speaker, author, and advisor in the Web3 and AI fields. He has worked with companies like Reddit, MoonPay, Pinata, Vayner3, and Metaverse Insider. He talks daily about Web3 and AI to more than 48,000+ followers on LinkedIn and gives talks and workshops for companies looking to understand the impacts of these technologies on their businesses.

Kaynã Rodrigues is a builder/developer by trade, having worked with a diverse plethora of areas such as Robotics, AI, VR, and Web3, his main skill is learning things fast and using them to solve problems or sharing them in a digestible way.