Blockchain enthusiasts expect 2018 to be a breakthrough year in media and advertising, despite offering differing definitions of what, precisely, blockchain is.
Digital distribution and advertising payments are expected to be the runaway applications for the new secure technology, and fervent promoters use an almost-identical mantra about the evolution process en route to widespread adoption of blockchain in the media sector: "It's where the Internet was in the late '90s."
Blockchain technology, a complex topic simply explained, is “an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value,” according to Don & Alex Tapscott, authors of Blockchain Revolution.
But if there's a 20-year timeframe until maturity, what's fueling today's blockchain frenzy? In part, the intense focus and confusion stems from the unfathomable huge price swings at Bitcoin, which uses blockchain as its underlying technology.