The European Parliamentary Research service has released a report on an in-depth analysis of how blockchain technology could change our lives.

“Although blockchains are not the solution for every problem and even if they will not revolutionise every aspect of our lives, they could have a substantial impact in many areas and it is necessary to be prepared for the challenges and opportunities they present”, the report said.

The report particularly focuses on blockchain use cases, namely digital currencies, rights management, patents, e-voting, supply chain and smart contracts, as well as their potential impacts and developments.

“While blockchain's best-known, most used and highest-impact application is Bitcoin, the potential impact of the technology is much greater and wider than virtual currencies”, the report said. “Indeed, there is a growing trend towards less trust in financial and governance institutions and greater social expectations of accountability and responsibility. The popularity of blockchain technology may also reflect an emerging social trend to prioritise transparency over anonymity”.

The authors further said that a significant level of growth in the use of blockchain technology, could lead to a substantial change in the quantity of ‘white collar’ work. In addition, they also note increased energy consumption as a potential indirect impact of blockchain development.

“While more efficient algorithms and hardware could be developed, the energy intensity of blockchains (and, indeed, that of all digital processes) may become an increasing problem in the future”, the report added.

The authors see the most profound effect of blockchain development in more subtle impacts upon broad social values and structures. They explain:

“A distributed ledger without a central intermediary is also value laden and political, placing trust in encryption and networking technology and redistributing power from central authorities to non-hierarchical and peer-to-peer structures. In this context, to use this kind of blockchain is to participate in a wider shift that would reduce the trust in and power of traditional institutions, such as banks and governments.”

However, they emphasize that for these changes to be noticeable on a general social level would require really substantial development of blockchain to the point where it permeates daily lives and mundane routines.

“In its purest form it [blockchain] promotes a redistribution of power from central actors across wide communities of peers. While the most idealistic and revolutionary visions of blockchain development will probably remain no more than visions, even moderate implementation of blockchain may still promote some degree of redistribution and transparency”, it added.