What is accepted as payment has changed over time, and so have the ways in which payments are made. Bitcoin, a cryptographic, blockchain-based computer protocol, represents for some just another currency to release and receive payments. For others to speculate or to diversify into an alternative asset class. The Bitcoin protocol illustrates the first prototype of a cryptographic economic system, which is organized both autonomously and distributive, without any point of central control or single point of failure. The protocol pilots the merger of cryptography and economics, where organizational operations adhere to the intractable institutions set by the protocol. More precisely, it showcased the worldwide first economic system on autopilot, which might not only change the “Nature of the Firm”, but also the nature of economic value creation and development itself, on the foundation of a more and more information systems based economy.
In this presentation, I will discuss current and future blockchain-based research trying to answer the question how we can engineer new markets and economies using blockchain. We will also discuss legal implications along use cases as well as in the context of GDPR and blockchain systems.
