2 Making Sense of Blockchain How Firms Can Chart a Strategic Path Forward By Pragna Kolli, with contributing students Jitin Jain, Abhinav Prateek, and Nate Rush, and Mack Institute Executive Director Saikat Chaudhuri Designed by Michelle Eckert Introduction B lockchain has been hailed as the biggest breakthrough since the internet. Its potential benefits span industries, and many companies today are actively considering adopting it to explore its transformative potential. How should firms approach such a promising but risky new technology? The technology is often confused with Bitcoin, but its applications extend far beyond cryptocurrencies. Blockchain can pave the way to a reconfigured world in which banks, insurers, utilities, retail firms, media companies, hospi- tals, and law firms all communicate with one another effortlessly. In a world with widespread blockchain adoption, business models would change dras- tically: Utility firms would arrive on maintenance calls because customers’ smart home systems had triggered service delivery and already contacted the insurer and bank for payments. Retailers shipping products from remote villages across continents would clear border security and customs check- points in seconds, tracking the process every step of the way. Pharmaceutical companies would more easily trace drug ingredients to their source, vastly reducing the incidence of the counterfeit medicines that plague today’s sup- ply chain.