[Analysis] Blockchain marks the next step in the Internet’s evolution

In the first 10 years of Bitcoin, increasingly diverse use cases for blockchains are continued to be explored by freelance developers and enterprise onlookers alike. Common to most of these innovators is a mindset that regardless of which public blockchain(s) become dominant, there are many private and enterprise use cases for blockchains to be built. This group is best characterized by users and developers of Hyperledger, explains columnist Irving Wladawsky-Berger. They are mostly interested in business applications and are based on the use of private or public permissioned blockchains networks to handle interactions between institutions that are known to each other. In general, these use cases are being explored because, similar to the Internet, almost everyone will inevitably be affected by blockchains whether or not they chose to be. The technology's growth and development is inevitable, only how it is best used is left to be determined.