5 Making Sense of Blockchain: How Firms Can Chart a Strategic Path Forward ^Top The Power of Blockchain B lockchain’s properties can make existing processes more efficient while providing new solutions to pressing problems.3 At its core, blockchain is a shared ledger that is transparent to all parties and is (almost) unalterable. This kind of visibility creates trust among participants, paving the way to business model transformation. On a blockchain, transactions take place over a peer-to-peer computer network. Each transaction’s data is recorded in a hash-coded “block.” Every subsequent transaction is sent to the network, validated, then encoded in a new block along with all the previous hash codes. The blocks of data provide a continuous record (the “chain” of blocks for which the technology is named), so a user can trace previous transactions all the way back to the first one. Since all the data-blocks are linked, data become nearly impossible to change and all parties on the network can trust the data's authenticity. The ability to create extensive, tamper-proof data records opens up powerful opportunities. Crédit Mutuel Arkéa Bank of France, for example, has created an internally-shared Know-Your-Customer (KYC) platform which allows employees at every function of the bank to access the entire history of a cus- tomer’s KYC documentation.4 Six banks in Canada are attempting an indus- try-level solution to decentralize and share digital identities externally across 3 FinTech Network, Four Blockchain Use Cases for Banks, http://blockchainapac.fintecnet.com/up- loads/2/4/3/8/24384857/fintech_blockchain_report_v3.pdf. Jesse Groenewegen, Marijn Heijmerikx and Jurriaan Kalf, The Impact of Blockchain on Trade Finance (Netherlands: Rabobank, November 13, 2017), https://economics.rabobank.com/publications/2017/no- vember/the-impact-of-blockchain-on-trade-finance/. Jo Lang, “Three uses for blockchain in banking,” IBM (blog), October 23, 2017, https://www.ibm.com/ blogs/blockchain/2017/10/three-uses-for-blockchain-in-banking/. Deloitte, “Blockchain Applications in Banking,” Deloitte, 2016, https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/ Deloitte/ch/Documents/innovation/ch-en-innovation-deloitte-blockchain-app-in-banking.pdf. 4 Catherine Palmer, “Crédit Mutuel Arkéa breaks new ground in France with blockchain,” IBM (blog), February 6, 2017, https://www.ibm.com/blogs/cloud-computing/2017/02/06/credit-mutu- el-arkea-blockchain/.