The future of blockchain innovation

- Blockchain technology is a work in progress. Not only does the underlying technology continue to evolve and mature, but its features and applications are expanding rapidly. By far the most compelling and established uses of blockchain continue to be cryptocurrencies and solutions within the financial industry. But other innovative uses are emerging. What's making blockchain particularly valuable is its use as a development platform. The leader in this area is Ethereum, a blockchain I mentioned earlier that as a cryptocurrency called Ether, and a fully fledged decentralized programmable environment. The term smart contract is used to describe code that runs on a blockchain. A smart contract is a series of functions that execute when certain conditions are met. Unlike traditional contracts, execution does not rely on, for example, legal language interpretation, or the promptness and discretion of humans. Rather, smart contracts run predictably and accurately. An example of a smart…