Mar 31, 2022 - Today we’re witnessing a Cambrian explosion of metaverses driven by technological advances in software, hardware, and bandwidth and bursts of creativity in gaming, social experiences, and enterprise use cases. In these virtual-reality environments, blockchains protect individual rights, identities, and assets in a decentralized manner, and support token-driven incentive systems. This research presents the latest developments in the marketplace, the tenets of successful metaverses (e.g., openness, transparency of rewards, enforceable rules of engagement), and the role of blockchain innovation. Businesses and governments as well as healthcare...

Dec 23, 2019 - This research explores how blockchain technologies could address the challenges of the market for life insurance. Through initiatives such as open IDL and consortia such as B3i and The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative, the insurance industry is exploring use cases where blockchain could deliver near-seamless automated processes, more secure data sharing, uniform compliance, and better fraud prevention. New business models such as peer-to-peer insurance and insurance-as-a-service will likely gain traction as insurance technology start-ups move into life insurance.

Apr 22, 2019 - Updated in collaboration with the IBM Institute for Business Value, this project explores how blockchain is transforming education with an emphasis on lifelong learning and the reskilling of the workforce. It covers not just traditional educational institutions but also corporate training and development, where innovators are using blockchain to establish student identity, protect privacy, finance coursework, measure progress, and record badges of achievement and skills mastery. The implementation of microcredentialing capabilities, pay-as-you-learn funding models, and massively open online courses, plus the co-creation of open educational re...

Feb 09, 2021 - This research project surveys what federal governments can do to exploit the next era of technology across their operations, within their economies and society, and with their allies and global partners. It focuses on the threats and opportunities facing the United States—including China’s increasing dominance in global supply chains and strategic innovation. It also speaks to challenges the new administration faces, and recommends five areas for immediate action: securing digital systems, citizen identities, and personal data; embracing cryptocurrencies and launching a digital dollar; transforming government services and culture; engagin...

Jan 16, 2018 - This manifesto for change calls for a new social contract, one that redefines the relationship between individuals in society and the institutions they have created to self-govern. It looks at the four drivers of this change—the Fourth Industrial Revolution, globalization of ideas and the economy, climate change, and demographic shifts due to war, drought, and oppression. It identifies such global disruptions as structural unemployment and inequality; failing education, healthcare, and research and development; human rights violations; and a biosphere in crisis. It identifies the four core change makers—the private sector, the state, civi...

Oct 22, 2019 - This case study looks at how blockchain technology could help us clean up our vital ocean ecosystems, from shorelines and coral reefs to Arctic sea ice platforms. It spotlights the work of Ocean Marine Blockchain Solutions, in collaboration with the Girguis Lab at Harvard University and the Jamaican agency Alligator Head Foundation. Together they’re creating a digital and economic data framework that is reframing the situation from an environmental problem to an economic opportunity, which may succeed in driving a much-needed sea change.