Nine myths about blockchain

Written by Dale Chrystie - business fellow and blockchain strategist at FedEx

Dispelling Myths About Blockchain

“We’re all going to get rich with Bitcoin!!”

1.     Myth: Bitcoin = blockchain

Some have become rich with Bitcoin, but most won’t - and that is a separate discussion from blockchain. With more than a decade of perspective on this, I would argue that Bitcoin blotted out the sun from blockchain for a number of years, slowing down its adoption. When we first got the internet, no one knew what to do with it until we got email and web browsers as applications to ‘sit on top’ of it. The problem is, we got Bitcoin first and most people did not - and many people still do not - understand the relationship between the two: Bitcoin is the application and not the other way around. If you think of a shiny new car as Bitcoin, blockchain is the engine or electric motor inside the car and the question becomes: “What else could you do with that engine or electric motor?”

“What’s blockchain?”

2.     Myth: Blockchain is just a technology best left to the technologists

When I …