The decentralised technology behind bitcoin is creeping out into the real world. The possibilities could change the way society is run

The blockchain eliminates bosses Tom Sibley/Gallerystock

THE centre cannot hold. The rise of bitcoin took the right to issue money, once the sole preserve of governments, and placed it in the hands of everyone. Now a spin-off technology could do the same for other core concepts of society: identity, ownership, reputation and even the rule of law.

This technology is the blockchain, and it has the potential to enable the ultimate workers’ cooperatives, or perhaps an ultra-libertarian parallel society, beyond governmental control.

Bitcoin’s blockchain is a cryptographically secured list of every bitcoin transaction ever made. The list is stored on every machine running bitcoin software and …