Blockchain – and more generally DLT – has attracted significant interest due to its potential to reshape industries, organisational and governance structures, and disrupt traditional business models. Industrial, academic and state actors are simultaneously cooperating and competing to create practical applications for Blockchain – and DLTs – in multiple domains. 


In this report, our goal is to examine how cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets can transition into mainstream use. To explore this, we investigate the capabilities of the emergent Blockchain concept, its ecosystem and the barriers it faces with respect to wider adoption. 


We start by discussing key concepts in this field and examining cryptocurrencies, in particular Bitcoin, before expanding to the wider context of smart contracts and token economies. 


We outline the functions and evolution of money throughout history and provide a comparative analysis of fiat money vs. cryptocurrencies.


Finally, we explore the short-, medium- and longer-term challenges that these concepts and cryptoassets need to overcome in order to realise their potential to decrease the local, global and industry-specific economic and digital frictions that we currently experience. 

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