The blockchain ecosystem

- It's not unreasonable to believe that blockchain is primarily a mechanism to support cryptocurrencies. For sure, crypto coins and crypto tokens represent a big proportion of its current use. It's also important to acknowledge that it's often these cryptos that power the new innovation that blockchain is enabling. For example, the Ethereum blockchain uses its own cryptocurrency, Ether, as a mechanism for user fees that power everything from games to managing digital assets. After Bitcoin was launched in 2009, blockchain technology began to be recognized as a platform for a wide range of uses beyond cryptocurrency. As the technology has matured, and in order to support new, complex implementations, a large blockchain ecosystem has emerged. Until now, I've only discussed blockchains that are permissionless and public. These open architectures allow anyone to participate. Since it's decentralized and without authority, there's no approval process. Everyone can join a permissionless…