To start a new section, hold down the apple+shift keys and click to release this object and type the section title in the box below. Foreword You may have read about Bitcoin or heard about it at a ‘FinTech’ conference. You may have used Bitcoins to purchase pizza, coffee or even a spaceflight. Wherever the word has cropped up, fierce debates have often followed. Early adopters passionately claim that Bitcoin will remove dependencies on banks and governments. Hardened business tycoons advise that Bitcoin is just a ‘flash in the pan’. While the debate about Bitcoin rages on, researchers have been quietly examining the technology that underpins this and other digital currencies. This is the realm of the blockchain – a protocol for exchanging value over the internet without an intermediary – and there is a growing buzz about how it might transform not just banking but many other industry sectors, too. In a recent survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF), a majority of experts and executives in the information and communications technology sector expected at least ten per cent of global GDP to be stored on blockchain platforms by 2025. And while the WEF doesn’t expect the tipping point for the technology to occur until around 2027, we anticipate that adoption will occur much faster as a multitude of applications emerge in different sectors. But who can benefit from this technology? What are the key blockchain applications and how will they work? How do Vimi Grewal-Carr organisations create value from them? And what are the technical, cultural and commercial challenges they will face? This paper is part of a series of reports under the title of “Disrupt: Deliver” – Deloitte’s approach to developing understanding of and new points of view on disruptive technologies. And, in the following pages, we take a close look at the blockchain and tackle these questions. In our view, there are new and emerging opportunities for organisations in all sectors to create and deliver compelling services for their customers using the power of disruptive innovation. As they formulate their plans for the coming months, we also hope that this paper helps business and public sector leaders understand the cultural and organisational challenges that are inevitably brought by the use of blockchain technologies, and provides them with the insights they need to overcome them. We hope that you find this paper useful and we look forward to your feedback. Stephen Marshall Vimi Grewal-Carr Stephen Marshall Managing Partner for Innovation Partner Deloitte LLP Deloitte LLP Blockchain Enigma. Paradox. Opportunity 1