Nice piece, Nick. It strikes me that traditional databases and private ledgers are so fundamentally different that they’re really different tools for different jobs, rather than competing technologies. It’s fascinating to see HSBC have such success with their private ledger for forex trades, for example. Why didn’t HSBC use a traditional database?

That would be an excellent question for your next piece to answer in detail… :)

Seriously, there’s a lot of over-the-top anti-blockchain hype right now — see what just came out from Bruce Schneier, and from Nicholas Weaver at Berkley — they’re completely ignoring the incredible success seen by HSBC, or the reasoning behind JP Morgan’s move to come out with their own private cryptocurrency.

Private permissioned blockchains like HSBC’s are powerful tools for what they do well, as are public permissionless blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and public permissioned hybrids like Sovrin. Would be good to see a piece that delves into when is the right time to use these different tools.