All hail the mighty blockchain

People like to compare blockchain to TCP/IP, in the sense that it is an underlying protocol on which many different kinds of functionality can be built. The first multi-network TCP/IP trials began in 1975, and ARPANET was migrated over in 1983. So it’s fun when you realize that the first blockchain was created just about five years ago to record Bitcoin transactions. We’ve barely started with this stuff. Where might we be in 2047?

Which brings us to the Rethink Music report. Very few people imagined all of the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things packed within the potential of an esoteric communications protocol set in 1974 that’s still in use today. Now, with the example of the Internet already behind us, people are imaging all kinds of amazing stuff right out of the, um, blocks.

Like: Blockchain solves digital music crisis. Just set up a, you know, one of those smart contracts on a blockchain and all artists everywhere will get paid exactly what they’re owed for streams and music sales. Instantly and automatically. Because blockchain.

Yep.