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The firsttwork on a cryptographicallytsecured chaintof blockstwas describedtin 1991 by Stuart Haber
and W. Scott Stornetta.2 In 1992, Bayer, Haber and Stornetta  incorporatedt Merkle trees to thetdesign,
which improvedtits efficiencytby allowingtseveral documentstto be collected intotone block.34
Thetfirsttblockchain was conceptualisedtby an anonymoustperson or grouptknown as Satoshi
Nakamoto in 2008. It wastimplemented thetfollowing year as a coretcomponent of the digital
 currencyt bitcoin, wheretit serves as  the publict ledger for allttransactions on thetnetwork.5 Bytusing a
blockchain,tbitcoin became thetfirst digitaltcurrency to solvet the doublet spending problemtwithout
requiring a trustedtadministrator and has beentthe inspirationtfor manytadditional applications.657
In August 2014, the bitcointblockchain filetsize, containingtrecords of allttransactions thatthave
occurred on thetnetwork,  reached 20GB (gigabytes).8 In January 2015, the size hadtgrown totalmost
30GB, and from January 2016 to January 2017, the bitcointblockchain grewtfrom 50GB to 100GB in
size.9 The words block and chain were usedtseparately in Satoshi Nakamoto’s originaltpaper, but were
eventuallytpopularized as a singletword, blockchain, as of 2016.
The termtblockchain 2.0 referstto newtapplications of the distributedtblockchaintdatabase, first
emergingtin 2014.10 The Economist  describedtone implementationtof this second-generation
programmabletblockchain as comingtwith “a programming language that allows users to write more
sophisticated smart contracts, thus creating invoices that pay themselves when a shipment arrives or
share certificates which automatically send their owners dividends if profits reach a certain
level”.5 Blockchain 2.0 technologiestgo beyondttransactions andtenable “exchange of value without
powerful intermediaries acting as arbiters of money and information”. Theytaretexpected totenable
excluded peopletto enter thetglobal economy, protect thetprivacy oftparticipants, allowtpeople to
“monetize their own information”, andtprovide the capabilitytto ensuretcreators are compensatedtfor
 their intellectualt property. Second-generationtblockchain technologytmakes it possible to storetan
individual’s “persistent digital ID and personals” and aretproviding an avenuetto help solvetthe problem
 of socialt inequality by “potentially changing the way wealth is distributed”.11 As of 2016, blockchain
2.0 implementationstcontinue to requiretan off- chain oraclet to access any “external data or events
based on time or market conditions that need to interact with the blockchain”.12
In 2016, the centraltsecurities depositorytof the Russian  Federation (NSD) announcedta pilottproject,
based  on the Nxt Blockchain 2.0 platform, that wouldtexplore the usetof blockchain-basedtautomated
votingtsystems.13 IBMtopened a blockchaintinnovationtresearchtcenter in Singapore in July
2016.14 A working group for  the World Economic Forum met in November 2016 totdiscuss the
 developmentt of governancet models relatedt to blockchain.15  According tot Accenture, antapplication of
 the diffusiont of innovationst theory suggeststthat blockchainstattained a 13.5% adoptiontrate within
financialtservices in 2016, thereforetreaching  thet early adopterstphase.16 Industry tradetgroups joined
to create the Global Blockchain Forum in 2016, an initiativet of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.17
In early 2017,  Harvard Business School professors Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani said the
blockchaint is not a disruptivet technology thatt undercuts the costt of ant existing businesstmodel, but is
a  foundationalt technology that “has the potential to create new foundations for our economic and social
systems”. They then furthertpredicted that, whiletfoundational innovationstcan havetenormoustimpact,
“It will take decades for blockchain to seep into our economic and social infrastructure.”