Newsworthy — Ascribe.io’s Founder: “Blockchain is going to hit the media industry hard, just like the Internet”

Bruce Pon, co-founder of ascribe.io and the CEO of ascribe’s scalable blockchain project BigChainDB, published an article today laying out his thoughts on why media companies are not prepared for the changes that blockchain technology will bring to their industry and seem uninterested in trying to understand it, but ultimately could substantially benefit from embracing the new technology. In his words:

…the media companies are sleepwalking into this next technology maelstrom, without knowing what’s going to hit them. Just like with the Internet.

It’s probably a bit early to assume the majority of media companies will bury their heads in the sand as the blockchain maelstrom blows through, and I must assume that Mr. Pon hopes that’s not the case, given his effort in the same article to educate his readers on what the blockchain may enable. But the views of someone working furiously on projects in this space should not be taken lightly.

At a recent conference I attended, I was interested (but by no means surprised) to learn that many professionals in the financial industry who are now focused on potential applications for blockchain, first encountered the technology when working in threat assessment roles. New technologies often play this dual role of threatening existing norms while offering new models. Mr. Pon’s statements provide fair warning that those who think that this technology will have little impact on their businesses, or only view it as a threat, should take heed of history.