A lot of people still don’t know what blockchain is. Here’s how we can fix that

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It should be clear by now that the blockchain and distributed ledger technology are going to play a very important role in our future. But it’s not.

In fact, 59 percent of consumers across the world said they’d never heard of blockchain technology, according to an HSBC survey. The survey, which polled 2,000 people from the UK and 1,000 from Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Singapore, the UAE, and the US, also found that 80 percent of those who have heard of blockchain don’t understand what it is.

Meanwhile, blockchain authorities are saying that this new technology signals the beginning of the internet’s next generation.

Industry experts often try to estimate when blockchain will become mainstream, but worldwide consumer adoption won’t happen until we first educate the mainstream media on what the blockchain actually is.

I began servicing blockchain and cryptocurrency companies as a media and communications strategist a few months ago. When I began to approach business and finance editors/journalists from top-tier publications in Australia with genuine newsworthy stories, here’s how the conversations generally went:

Journalist: “What is blockchain?”

Me: “Have you heard of bitcoin?”

Journalist: “Yes, vaguely.”

Me: “Well, blockchain is the technology behind bitcoin…”

This is oversimplifying it, but I’ve had to resort to explaining it in simple terms. If I don’t, I’ll lose their attention.

The reality is that a lot of them still haven’t heard of blockchain let alone understand what it is and how it works. This needs to change. Media professionals and journalists have a real responsibility to inform the public about this new technology. But blockchain companies must also do their part.

Informing the public

There are new and exciting stories every day about interesting blockchain and decentralized platforms tackling important world problems like music and film piracy, food fraud, and the energy industry. In order for these ideas to play out, they need people to get on board and participate. The only way this can happen is if journalists inform the public.

Staying updated

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