Blockchain

🧭 Background & Context At its core, blockchain is a decentralized database that stores transactions in chronologically linked blocks. Its special feature lies in its tamper resistance: Once confirmed, entries can only be changed with enormous computational effort, creating trust without a central authority. This property makes it attractive for financial transactions, supply chains, or digital identities, but the hype often exceeds practical maturity. The technology is slow, energy-intensive, and complex to maintain, which is why many applications would also work with classic databases. Viewed calmly, blockchain is less of a revolution than a tool for specific problems where decentralization and traceability are crucial. Its value only becomes apparent where multiple parties need to collaborate without a shared basis of trust—not as a panacea, but as a precisely deployed solution. 📊 Market Environment & Drivers The most important drivers are structural in nature: demographics and productivity. A shrinking and aging workforce lowers potential growth, while at the same time technological progress—especially automation and AI—increases productivity per capita but also triggers displacement effects. Added to this is capital formation, which supports growth t …