Distributed ledger technologies are transforming the infrastructure of global finance, pushing such services as payments, loans, investing, trading, and insurance to the edges of the financial ecosystem.

The trivergence of blockchain, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things is optimizing the tagging, tracking, and transferring of raw materials and finished goods around the world. This theme covers the potential for global asset chains.

Innovators are launching new blockchain protocols to overcome such barriers to adoption as scalability, integration, and speed on the one hand, and governance on the other hand.

This theme covers the future of money, stablecoins, community and corporate currencies, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the tokenization and securitization of capital goods, intellectual property, real estate, and more.

From tokenizing carbon credits to incentivizing recycling, innovators are using blockchain technologies to reward sustainable practices, reduce waste, and include more people in the global economy.

Blockchains could help improve how we identify people and things by proposing more flexible and scalable identification systems based on cryptography. This theme covers the transition from current models of identification to new ones.

The metaverse has been an idea in waiting. But now with the demand pull into a virtual world created by the pandemic, combined with the technology push of blockchain, enabling digital currencies, the protection of assets through NFTs, and the opportunity to capture our digital identities, the wait is over.

Blockchain enables new models for scientific research, the development and approval of new drugs and devices, the delivery of healthcare, and the management of facilities, supplies, professionals, and consumers.