(Re)-Explaining the Blockchain in One Slide

I’ve been obsessed with explaining the blockchain to increasingly larger audiences, without going through technical detours.

Today, I made a presentation at the Red Chalk Group Blockchain in Insurance event in Chicago where I revealed for the first time an updated slide to describe the blockchain’s potential in a single slide.

This would be my 4th iteration at explaining the blockchain in one slide. The first 3 versions were the following:

Simple Blockchain Definition

Multi-Disciplinary View of the Blockchain

Multiple Identities View of the Blockchain

There is nothing wrong with these existing definitions. They are valid, but unlike these previous 3 versions, I wanted to focus the next iteration on “how to think about the blockchain”, i.e. give a framework for thinking about the blockchain opportunities for your particular projects or ideas.

To start with, I categorized what the blockchain enables into 4 segments:

1. A Software Development Environment
2. A Global Utility
3. Enabling Trust Services
4. Creating New Marketplaces

Each category includes a list of 3 bullets that expands on the realm of blockchain usage within these 4 categories. Here is the slide. My hope is that it generates ideas for anyone who is thinking about implementing blockchain innovations.

A Framework for Thinking About the Blockchain