Blockchain: Data Malls, Coin Economies and Keyless Payments

Abstract

We discuss several uses of blockchain (and, more generally, distributed ledger) technologies outside of cryptocurrencies with a pragmatic view. We mostly focus on three areas: the role of coin economies for what we refer to as data malls (specialized data marketplaces); data provenance (a historical record of data and its origins); and what we term keyless payments (made without having to know other users' cryptographic keys). We also discuss voting and other areas, and give a sizable list of academic and nonacademic references.