Blockchain Gaining Ground

Most organizations don’t understand it. Most people can’t explain it. Then there are those who are convinced it’s going to change everything. As one observer put it: Blockchain is over-hyped in the short term but the long-term possibilities are underestimated.

Blockchain is the underlying technology behind digital currency. For most nonprofits, their first initiation into the world of blockchain technology is accepting donations of cryptocurrency, such as BitCoin, Ethereum, or Ripple. For others, it’s just the start.

A blockchain is a decentralized network of peer-to-peer databases, so there’s no one central place where data are stored, say, like a bank, thus more difficult to attack. It’s hailed for its transparency and accountability because any changes to a public blockchain can only be seen, or even authorized, by others along the chain.