DAVOS, SWITZERLAND—The World Economic Forum has identified “the blockchain” as one of the core technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (this year’s theme of the Davos summit). The topic has come up a lot this week and there is plenty of enthusiasm, hand-wringing, fear and our-right denial.

Understandably so.

The digital revolution is bringing a new and radically different platform for business and other institutions that can take us through the next quarter century of human progress. At the core is the biggest innovation in computer science in a generation. It is the technology underlying the digital currency Bitcoin—the blockchain. This technology platform is open and programmable. My view is that as such it holds the potential for unleashing countless new applications and as yet unrealized capabilities that have the potential to transform everything in the next 25 years.

Blockchain technology is complex but the idea is simple. The next generation of the Internet enabled not just the communication of information but the direct communication of value and money. What if we could build businesses, do transactions do transactions directly, peer-to-peer without powerful intermediaries?

At its most basic, the blockchain is a global database—an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value and importance to humankind: birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, deeds and titles of ownership, educational degrees, financial accounts, medical procedures, insurance claims, votes, transactions between smart objects, and anything else that can be expressed in code. This ledger represents the truth because mass collaboration constantly reconciles it. We will not need to trust each other in the traditional sense, because the new platform ensures integrity. Think trust achieved through clever code and mass collaboration.

Now I confess to bias about the potential of this technology, as my upcoming book, co-authored with my son Alex is called Blockchain Revolution. Nevertheless, it’s clear that lots of other people here are trying to figure this out.

The week began for me on Monday in Munich where I gave a speech to the big DLD conference on the topic. The room was jammed and a couple of hundred people lined up outside unable to get in. Then in Davos I joined people like Kevin Spacey, and Jimmy Wales (the founder of Wikipedia) on a panel talking about cyber-security. The general sense in the room is that a distributed, encrypted database like the blockchain could be key to creating a more secure computing environment and a more secure world.

Today I participated in a private session organized by MIT and the Boston consulting Group to talk about the blockchain and once it was standing room only. There were several simultaneous group discussions that all had mind-boggling implications. One group talked about how this technology could disrupt the banks on the one hand and also be used by the banks to reinvent themselves on the other. One CEO of an insurance company complained that his industry is traditionally a laggard when it comes to innovative technology. “I’m guessing our industry will be brutally disrupted” he said.

Another group talked about blockchain and society and concluded that there was an opportunity to create a fairer and more transparent world where the truth could be evidenced. A third group looked at blockchain and identity, discussing the idea of each of us having our own identity on the blockchain that was private and controlled by us, rather than by big social media companies, banks or governments. A fourth group, chaired by MIT’s Brian Forde of the MIT Media Lab looked at opportunities to use this technology to bring several billion poor people into the global economy. These people may have a smartphone and an Internet connection but no bank will give them an account because they have no real assets. Using blockchain technology they can buy and sell things online, save money, get loans, more easily build a small business and even make tiny investments in companies.

The enthusiasm was in stark contrast to my next meeting meeting—with 60 CEO’s of big banks banks. I was leading a discussion on technology disrupters in banking and while there was big interest in understanding blockchain technologies most were not convinced that there was either a big danger or big opportunity.

It kind of reminded me of 1994 when I advocated for something called the World Wide Web and many people’s reaction was “meh.”

Don Tapscott a best-selling author most recently The Digital Economy, Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and the chancellor of Trent University. He’s reporting on Davos for The Toronto Star. @dtapscott

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