Blockchain Revolution

Implications for the Blockchain Economy: To be sure, the blockchain provides

opportunities to stop the stampede to a surveillance society. Now think about the problem of corporate big data for each of us. What does it mean for a corporation to have perfect information about you? We are some twenty years into the global Internet era, and only at the beginning of corporate access to the most intimate details of our personal lives. Coming up fast are personal health and fitness data, our daily comings and goings, the inner lives of our homes, and, well, you name it. Many people are simply unaware of the many micro-Faustian deals they make online every day. By simply using Web sites, consumers authorize their owners to convert trails of digital crumbs into detailed road maps for private commercial benefit.

Unless we shift to the new paradigm, it’s not science fiction to foresee hundreds of millions of avatars humming away in tomorrow’s data centers. With blockchain technology, you could own your personal avatars as you do in the Second Life virtual world, but with real-world implications. The Virtual You could protect your personal information, giving away only the information required in any social or economic exchange work under your command and make sure you receive compensation for any of your data that has value to another party. It’s a shift from big data to private data. Call it “little data.”

6. 
   Rights Preserved
   

Principle: Ownership rights are transparent and enforceable. Individual freedoms are recognized and respected. We hold this truth to be self-evident—that all of us are born with certain inalienable rights that should and can be protected.