How Blockchain Technology Can Significantly Lower Corruption and Fraud in a Variety of Industries

Technology entrepreneur Brian Behlendorf, one of the primary creators of the Apache Web server and co-founder of Organic, is currently the executive director of HyperLedger, an open source blockchain project that’s thinking beyond cryptocurrency.

In a video for Big Think, Behlendorf explains how the decentralized nature of blockchain technology will lead to “significantly lower corruption and eliminate fraud” in a variety of industries in which the stakes are high and the risk of corruption and/or fraud are even higher.

Blockchain technology allows us to build these same kind of systems but in a world where we don’t want to or we can’t trust central actors. …The beauty of this idea is in its decentralization—if no one person or institution holds power, then that power cannot be abused. The potential for this technology is enormous: it could significantly lower corruption and eliminate fraud in many industries like banking, freight, construction, and even trace the provenance of goods like diamonds.