Software and the internet changed how consumers and businesses interact with each other. Some businesses adapted, some closed their doors, and many new ones sprouted. Business practices which were commonplace two decades ago, are likely unrecognizable today. This creative destruction has created trillions of dollars in value, a new technology elite, as well as an array of businesses unthinkable even ten years ago. However; we see one notable exception, Financial Services. How we use finance, how it works, and how it interacts with our daily lives has progressed little on the margin. 

The creation of Bitcoin introduced us to the concept of digital scarcity, and it allowed us to envision a world where global finance could run on digital rails. While a (PDF) file can simply be copied an infinite number of times, BTC cannot. This is digital scarcity. This zero-to-one innovation went largely unnoticed yet slowly kicked off a financial revolution. Finance-centric at its core, that innovation continues today and has spilled over into adjacent industries. The protocols and digital assets being built atop of blockchains today, represent the businesses and business models of tomorrow.

Video rentals, newspaper companies and taxis serve as the poster child of digital disruption. Change in these industries came from the outside, from new and more agile business models. Changes (or lack of) at these incumbent institutions proved their downfall. The revolution in global commerce will not come from the inside, it will come from new businesses and ultra-light protocols remapping how we interact with finance and reshaping how we conduct global commerce.