Blockchain
It may be surprising that Bitcoin, the much-hyped
cryptocurrency, didn’t make the list. But the technology’s online ledger, the
blockchain, has supplanted the digital denomination as the rising business
star.
Unlike traditional, centralized records, a blockchain
is decentralized. The permanent record is not stored in one location but exists
on nodes spread across the system. This design makes it difficult to lose
records or tamper with them.
As tech entrepreneur Elad Gil told Big Think in an
interview: “[Blockchain] systems are effectively censorship proof or seizure
resistant. In other words, the government can’t come and take your asset if
you’re in a country that has very bad governance, or it means that no third
party can suddenly, accidentally erase your data, or you can’t hack a third party
to access your data (although obviously, you can still hack a blockchain).”