May 31, 2022 - This project shows how blockchain innovators in oil and gas are reimagining the energy industry from exploration and discovery to asset retirement and environmental renewal. It highlights use cases for tracking carbon and trading carbon credits (e.g., Guild One’s Energy Blockchain Exchange), coordinating contracts among multiple partners, assuring land and royalty rights, digitizing oil and gas post-trade settlement (e.g, Quorum-based Vakt for commodity trading post processing), streamlining and automating compliance, monitoring operations, maintenance, and inspections, all the while transitioning to a sustainable future.

Dec 09, 2018 - Amid ongoing reports of surveillance, censorship, and massive hacking of data, this research explores how distributed ledger technology can address the challenges of the World Wide Web. The authors argue that blockchain can support the Internet’s founding ideals, decentralize the Internet, and restore the balance of power between individuals and large organizations. They focus on three big issues: open access, fair participation, and the recovery of the individual sovereignty as users. The authors interviewed such experts as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Joseph Lubin of Consensus Systems, Shane Greenstein of Harvard Business School, Rouven Heck of u...

Aug 30, 2019 - This is the first half of Trust(less): How Blockchain Will Help Us Navigate the Post-Trust World. It establishes the context for distrust in technology. We might assume that our current challenges with blockchain innovations are unique. But every generation of inventive entrepreneurs has faced push-back from a species that doesn’t easily embrace change. After reviewing the history of initially terrifying inventions—from electricity and elevators to artificial intelligence and Airbnb—the author distills the lessons relevant to the building consumer trust needed for broad consumer adoption of blockchain technologies.

Nov 22, 2017 - This project explores the intersection of Internet of Things and blockchain as a means of securing transactions among objects, realizing efficiencies, establishing appropriate boundaries between public and private, and developing strategies for business leaders across industry. It maps out the typical architecture of an IoT deployment in terms of connectivity, identity, sensing, and actuation. The author walks through the challenges of centralized and decentralized IoT designs, from scalability, latency, and transaction costs to privacy, durability, and interoperability of systems.

Oct 19, 2022 - In this project, our research lead reviews what we learned from the music industry’s first wave of blockchain innovation and explores the opportunities in its second wave, including innovations such as non-fungible tokens and metaverse experiences. He looks at the barriers to realizing these opportunities, including risks such as the legal grey area around who holds the intellectual property rights to minting music-related NFTs. He includes excerpts of his in-depth interviews of Scott Cohen, former chief innovation officer, Warner Music Group; Sophie Goossens, partner, Reed Smith; Vaughn McKenzie-Landell, CEO and co-founder of JAAK; and Chr...

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...