It's a very broad question to be answered, but I want to separate it. I always teach that blockchain, decentralization and cryptocurrency are three different things that together make use of a lot of what we're seeing today.
Blockchain technology is the database ecosystem. For example, there's a company that we've invested in called Neoflow. It does blockchain technology for oil and gas. There is no currency associated to it. It is not decentralized. It is not meant to be a global network; it is meant to be a very niche network. However, that blockchain technology itself, in the way that they studied the supply chain and how it works with oil and gas, saved hundreds of millions of dollars in efficiencies and thousands of hours. That's the blockchain technology. There are many applications in supply chain, forestry and oil and gas in traditional space.
Then there's the financialization, or the peer-to-peer aspect. For example, I've seen this. It's a very early-stage idea, but I thought very innovative, of enabling peer-to-peer financing for down payments on mortgages for new families. Many people can potentially get financing from the bank, but they need the down payment. They don't know where to get it. Mom and dad don't have it and family doesn't have it, so how do we pull together in a way that is regulated, that is fully tracked on the blockchain, and that is governed by smart contracts? That is one of the ways that we are also seeing some interesting ideas that can empower citizens.
Basically, there's a financing side and there's the blockchain technology application. They are two different things.
Then there's the distributed aspect, which is the ability to say that no one central organization or entity owns the rights to it, and that brings a lot of global innovation.
I could go on and on, but I wanted to give two clear examples. Blockchain, crypto, and decentralization are not the same, and we all need to understand that at a fundamental and technological level so that we can regulate things differently.