Blockchain technology promises to be the foundation for a secure transaction network that can induce trust and security in many industries that are plagued with systemic issues around trust and accountability. From a technology point of view, blockchain facilitates a system of processing and recording transactions that is secure, transparent, auditable, efficient, and immutable. These technology characteristics lend themselves to addressing the time and trust issues that current-day distributed transaction systems are plagued with.

Blockchain fundamentally shifts the multi-tier model to a flat-tier transaction processing model. This carries the promise to fundamentally disrupt industries by disintermediation, by inducing efficacy in new system design or simply by creating new business models.

Disintermediation indicates reducing the use of intermediaries between producers and consumers, such as by investing directly in the securities market rather than going through a bank. In the financial industry, every transaction has historically required a counter party to process the transaction. Disintermediation involves removing the middleman, which by definition disrupts the business models and incentive economies that are based on mediation. There's been a wave of disruption in recent years as a result of digital technologies, which have, in turn, been driven by marketing insights and the desire for organizations to provide a richer user experience.

Blockchain is a technology that aims to catapult this disruption by introducing trade, trust, and ownership into the equation. The technology pattern represented by blockchain databases and records has the potential to radically improve banking, supply chains, and other transaction networks, providing new opportunities for innovation and growth while reducing cost and risk.