TheBlockchain
Innovator’s
Handbook
A leader’s guide to understanding,adopting and succeeding withthis disruptive technology

Conor Svensson

ContentsForeword

1Introduction

5

PART 1 This Time It’s Different

13

1 The Machine You Cannot Shut Down

15

The unstoppable machine

15

The three World Wide Webs172008 – a tale of two technologies

19

Blockchain and distributed
ledger technology

24

Summary30

2 The Safest Place For Your Data Is Everywhere

33

Decentralised is safer

33

Cryptocurrencies

37

Smart contracts

42

Decentralised storage

43

The next generation

46

Public versus private networks

47

Summary49

3 A Future Tale

51

A day in the life

51

Summary57

4 A Timeline Of Innovation

59

Tokenising the world

60

The birth of the ICO

63

The first great crypto bubble

64

Decentralised governance

66

Classes of tokens

71

The new financial infrastructure75

Decentralising trading77

Summary

90

5 Why 2021 Is The Start Of The 21st Century

93

A tale of two planets – geographicaland digital94

The emerging virtual state97

Why now is the right time

105

Summary106

PART 2 The Journey

107

6 The Blockchain Innovator’s Journey

109

The three phases112

What if my destination changes?

113

Summary115

7 Discovery Part One

117

Disruptive forces118

Get inspired

119

A solution looking for a problem

122

Turning inside out

127

Further inspiration

130

Summary132

8 Discovery Part Two

135

An evidence-based approach

136

Evaluating blockchain projects
and technologies

144

Blockchain principles for success

152

Summary

153

9 Design

155

Incorporate learnings

156

Stakeholder and customer engagement

156

Architecture157

White papers and token sales

159

Trust the machine160

A minimum viable product163

MVP versus PoC

164

Delivery methodology

164

Summary180

10 Deploy183The type of launch

184

Customer onboarding

185

Training

188

Support189

Maintenance and release management

192

Eliminate single points of failure

193

Legal considerations

196

Where next?

198

Summary

199

PART 3 Making It Happen

201

11 Community And Collaboration

203

Unlearn what you know

204

The blockchain community is unique204

Collaboration is key

207

Industry and standards groups

210

Consortia caveats

214

Summary215

12 Innovation And Risk

217

An innovation dilemma

218

Career risks

220Managing the downside

223

Summary224

13 Agility

227

Blockchain is a universal language

227

Welcome to the Wild West229

Free PR for your work232

How agile is your vessel?

233

Network effects

235

Summary239

14 Finding The Right Resources241

The rise of the blockchain expert

242

Upskill risks

242

Build partnerships

243

Acquisitions

247

Ecosystem funds

247

What is the optimum?

250

Summary251

15 How To Pitch Blockchain To Your Board

253

The eight steps to a successful pitch

254

Summary

262

Conclusion

265

Resources

271

Glossary281

Endnotes

289

Acknowledgements

301

Neurodiversity

303

The Author

307

3

A Future Tale

So far I have discussed why blockchain is such apowerful force for change. In order to further
solidify the ways in which it can affect everyday life,
it’s helpful to look to the future and highlight ways
in which it can become embedded in our lives behindthe scenes, supporting everything from virtual reality
to electric vehicle charging. In this chapter I unpack
what parts of this future could look like.

A day in the life
It’s been just over ten years since the global Covid-19
pandemic, and you’ve woken up in your hotel roomin Singapore. You reach for your phone to check formessages.
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THE BLOCKCHAIN INNOVATOR’S HANDBOOKYour friend Leyla has sent you a message about thevirtual reality gig you attended last night. Using yourVR headset, you were there up close with the Rolling
Stones as they performed Jumping’ Jack Flash for thevery last time. You spent that little bit extra to get
an exclusive ticket, which lives permanently in yourdigital wallet.
This ticket is not only proof that you attended thismilestone event, but is also an exclusive collectablethat enables the holder to replay that event and bring
their friends with them whenever they want. Downthe line, if you decide you’d like someone else torelive that experience you can sell it on via a digitalcollectables marketplace. Regardless of how muchyou sell it for, a set percentage of the sale price is split
between the band and the event organisers, and therest is yours after the marketplace has taken its fee.
Most of the possessions you have purchased lately
sit in your digital wallet. It’s so much easier having
everything in one place rather than spread across aseries of emails, websites and platforms, as used to be
the case a decade ago.
You decide to listen to some music to get yourself
ready for the day ahead; you see that your favourite
rapper, Nas, has released a new album that you want
to check out. As you start listening, details of this play
are being recorded and you can see how much he isbeing paid as you listen to his latest album. Although52

a Future tale

you don’t think it’s his best work, you keep it playing
to maximise the royalties he receives.
You need to check out of your hotel today, and you’re
struck by how much easier it is now then it used to be.
You just touch your smart watch on a reader when you
leave the room to lock the door, then again when you
leave the hotel. Your smart watch is connected to yourdigital wallet, which contains your digital identity.
You used your digital identity to enter into an agreement with the hotel for the booking, and the funds
for the trip were held in escrow via a smart contract
until you checked out, when they were automaticallyreleased to the hotel at the end of your stay.
Outside the hotel a fleet of self-driving taxis is plugged
into chargers, waiting to take guests where they needto go. You get into one, which initiates a disconnection from the charging point. The charging point notifies the taxi of how much the charging session cost
and takes payment for the session automatically. The
charging cable is then released and the taxi heads off
to the airport.
En route the taxi automatically pays a series of tolls
for travelling on the express highway to the airport;
again, these are made using micropayments, this timecommunicating over a 5 G mobile network to theagency responsible for maintaining the highways inSingapore.

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THE BLOCKCHAIN INNOVATOR’S HANDBOOK

Once you reach the airport, you are notified of thetotal cost of the journey, including tolls, which youapprove. Unlike ten years previously, there is nopayment provider here – payment goes out of yourdigital wallet directly to the taxi operator.
You already have your plane ticket sitting in yourdigital wallet, so you head straight to security andpassport control, where you make use of your digital
identity again.
Your digital identity is also linked to your digital passport – long gone are the days of having to show anactual passport. Now, all you have to do is scan a QR
code at passport control using your digital wallet andapprove sending a message to prove who you are. The
facial recognition software on your phone’s camera isused to prove that the person scanning the code is thereal person associated with that identity. You’re thenfree to head into the departure lounge.
You grab a coffee, which tastes surprisingly good foran airport coffee. There’s a QR code on the cup that you
scan with your phone. This takes you to a site where
you can see that the beans came from the district ofLintong Nihuta, to the south-west of Lake Toba on
the Indonesian island of Sumatra, with pictures ofthe family who harvested them. From there the beans
travelled to Singapore, where they were roasted only
two weeks ago before being distributed to the coffee
shop you’re at now. Sure, it’s only a cup of coffee but54

a Future talewhen it tastes this good, it’s good to know what madeit the way it is.
While sitting around, you take a quick look at yourasset portfolio. You have holdings in various digitalassets that are all generating incomes of 5–15% annually, regardless of how small an amount you have ofthem. Some of these are riskier than others, but theybalance out. You also hold digital dollars, euros andpounds, which are all generating yields at the lower
end of this range, but way better than what your bankused to give you.
Some income has come through from the rental property you own in London with your sister. You have asmart contract that receives the rent each month andautomatically splits the revenue between you both,and it shows up in your digital wallet. You take someof the income and invest it in a blockchain start-up thatis providing provenance of minerals on Mars – the firstmanned flight is planned a few years from now.
Your airline sends you a message about how you’d liketo offset the carbon emissions from your flight. To speedup the transition to net-zero emissions in the airline
industry, paying for offsets is a mandatory componentof all ticket sales. These offsets are created by a numberof different clean energy projects with their origin
tracked on a blockchain. You select a wind power projectin Madhya Pradesh, India that will ultimately offset 1.23
million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e)55

THE BLOCKCHAIN INNOVATOR’S HANDBOOK

over seven years. In your airline’s app, you can see that
4.66 digital tCO2e tokens have been purchased from thisproject, assigned to your digital wallet to offset the 4.66
tonnes of CO2 generated by the flight.
You check into social media to get some commentaryfrom the people that inspire with no-BS advice andthoughts. You tip some of them with a micro-transaction
as a thank-you for keeping you inspired. It used to be
so expensive to do this back when you had to use credit
cards – there was a minimum fee of 50 cents for thevendors – whereas now it’s nice to be able to send fractions of a cent as easily as you like a post on social media.
You also realise that your travel insurance policy iscoming up for renewal. You had to make a few claimsin the past year due to missed flights, but prior to thatclaims were minimal. When you provide your digital
ID to other insurers, you’re able to easily share yourclaim records for the past five years and they see that
this past year has been different to those prior, so it’s
not too difficult to find a firm to renew with.
You’re going to have a long flight back to London, so
rather than risk the choppy internet connectivity you
still get on aeroplanes (but hey, at least they don’t still
try to charge you for it), you head back online to adigital marketplace to purchase some second-handclothes for your avatar in Grand Theft Auto 7. You findsome awesome retro Air-Max trainers that were partof a limited digital edition issued by Nike; you can’t

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a Future talebelieve someone is happy to sell them. Your avatar isgetting the wardrobe you wish you could have.
You’re now feeling all set for your flight; you’ve got afew hours to yourself where you can immerse yourself
in Grand Theft Auto 7, before you drift off to sleep andwake up in London, ready to get back to the family.
As challenging as framing the future can be, many ofthe above scenarios are from a future that is in fact
far closer than you think. Companies have alreadymade significant progress in many of the innovations
we describe here, in significant part due to the use ofblockchain technology.

Summary
Blockchain will have an impact on people’s everyday
lives in the future. Some of the places it may do thisinclude:• Provenance of everyday goods such coffee• Tickets for travel• Electronic payments• Investing• Offsetting emissions• Virtual reality and gaming• Payment of music royalties
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The Author

Conor is the founder andCEO of Web3 Labs, a blockchain technology company.
He is also the host of theBlockchain Innovators podcast.
Web3 Labs works with largeorganisations
todeliverapplications that improve
trust and authenticity of data and assets. Its clients
include Microsoft, J.P. Morgan and Vodafone. It also
works with leading blockchain companies and protocols to develop their ecosystems and platforms. The
organisations Web3 Labs has worked with include
ConsenSys, R3, the Open Application Network, theEthereum Foundation and ICON.
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THE BLOCKCHAIN INNOVATOR’S HANDBOOK

Web3 Labs was a finalist in Microsoft’s Partner of theYear 2020 Awards.
Conor is the former chair of the standards working groupat the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, responsible forpublishing the world’s first Enterprise Ethereum standards. He is currently vice-chair of the InterWork Framework Working Group at the Global Blockchain BusinessCouncil, serves on the Baseline Protocol TechnicalSteering Committee and is involved in the Hyperledger
Climate Accounting Special Interest Group.
He originally stumbled upon blockchain in 2016 when
he started learning about Ethereum, first by building a
mining rig, then by authoring the blockchain integration library Web3j, which provides the glue for businessapplications and Android phones to work with the Ethereum blockchain. The library is nearly five years old andapproaching 1 million downloads, thanks to usage bycompanies like J.P. Morgan, Opera and Samsung.
Outside work, when he’s not hanging out with hiswife and kids, Conor keeps active through a combination of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, running, surfing and standup paddle boarding. He also loves sci-fi, fantasy andplaying the drums.
He can be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.
! linkedin.com/in/ConorSvensson" @ConorSvensson
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