Newsworthy: George Howard on Kanye West and the Blockchain

In a new piece on Forbes.com today, George Howard (see here for his past articles) throws out a use case for the blockchain centered on Kanye West’s request to Mark Zuckerberg for a $1 billion investment. It’s a cute conceit, but makes a serious point about the potential for micropayments and smart contracts to shake up the creative businesses.

The idea of micropayments has been around for a long time, but the new conversation evolving in the context of the blockchain seems to be gaining real traction, at least among theorists and start-ups (which are often one and the same!). There are complicated issues to be worked out (many of them legal), but as Mr. Howard says, the market demand is likely already there, as well as the beginnings of a technical solution.