Over the course of the next 10 years, half of the current Fortune 500 will be replaced. The half that survive will be the ones that learn the lessons of the first wave of internet disruption.

In the mid 90’s, the business world discovered the internet. For the next 10 years, there were two kinds of companies: dot coms, and the traditional business world. The impact across every industry was tremendous. Physical media sales were decimated. Thousands of brick and mortar stores closed their doors, squeezed out by online retailers (hello, Amazon). SaaS and app marketplaces replaced most boxed software sales.

Today, every company is online in some way whether they like it or not. From point of sale transactions to social media, every business is a tech business. The ones that get that survive. The rest? Well, you know the rest: Adapt or die.

The Internet of Value

The same series of events is playing out today. There’s a new internet forming: The internet of value. And today, there are two kinds of companies: crypto/blockchain companies, and the rest.

Over the course of the next 10–15 years, a new kind of shake out will disrupt every industry. VC has already been overwhelmed by cryptocurrency token ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings):

The banking and finance industry is just beginning to feel the first signs of the crypto revolution: Crypto-capable finance apps like Coinbase, Square Cash, and Robinhood have a bigger install base than most banking and investment apps.

But the internet of value doesn’t stop at money. Blockchains and crypto ledgers have broader applications. The potential of an immutable, decentralized ledger is pretty amazing. It takes the power of information — your information — out of the hands of any one company, one government, or one organization, and puts the users in control.

Po.et is pouring that potential into a new kind of network: An open, blockchain-secured network that puts content creators in control of their creative work. It allows content creators to claim ownership and the right to issue licenses to use their work. As the network grows, content users will be able to discover and license content, creating a two-sided marketplace in the open, as opposed to the isolated walled-gardens of today.

The Po.et network is the open garden, and it’s our hope that a large ecosystem of apps can grow on top of it. This is great news for creators, and I’m excited to see what the community will do with the technology we create.

If you want to explore the tech, Po.et recently announced the open Frost API , the easiest way to start hashing creative works on the blockchain.

Po.et represents the chance to liberate creatives from traditional gatekeepers: to more directly connect with revenue sources to enable them to earn money doing what they love to do. It also represents a chance to make it easier for companies to find the resources they’re looking for, and obtain legal license to use the content with the click of a button.

We have a lot of ideas about how that could work, and I wish I could tell you more about the ones I’m most excited about. But what I’m really looking forward to is seeing how you use Po.et.

Make some magic.