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What started as an infrastructure underlying Bitcoin cryptocurrency, Blockchain technology has emerged as an actual game changer While introducing new possibilities and applications now and then the technology, has gained its own share of hype and scams.

 Because of this, various Entrepreneurs and developers are still confused regarding what would be the real impact of Blockchain technology on the economy. They are still doubtful about the blockchain’s effect on businesses and if they should invest in Blockchain development or not.

Now, assuming that you are one of those Entrepreneurs and are hoping to get a crystal clear idea of the whole scenario, let’s talk about Blockchain technology and its future in this article.

But before we dissect the technology and blockchain impact on the global economy, let’s first go through a few statistics highlighting the current state of the technology and how the world is answering the most important yet cliché question- how to use Blockchain technology?

History of Blockchain: A Brief Overview of the Three Generations

1. Blockchain 1.0

The first generation of Blockchain was meant to improve the traditional monetary system. Bitcoin and other crypto currencies were introduced in this phase, primarily written in C++ and used to employ the PoW (Proof-of-Work) consensus model.
Though the Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies enhanced transactional experience, developers realised that the technology holds immense potential beyond cryptocurrencies. This is what became the reason for the second generation’s inception.

2. Blockchain 2.0

While Bitcoins remained a hype in the market, Ethereum and Smart Contracts came into the limelight in the second Blockchain generation. The developers started treating Ethereum not merely as a cryptocurrency but also as a platform to deliver a scalable experience and build Dapps.
They also started considering the concept of Smart Contracts to make agreements more automated, secure, and practical– detailed knowledge of which can be taken from our Smart Contracts guide.

3. Blockchain 3.0

The next generation of Blockchain 3.0 is supposed to be the generation showcasing the most efficient Blockchain-based solutions. In this generation, where the impact of blockchain on the economy and market was at the forefront, various challenges associated with blockchain solutions development like the inability to process cross-chain transactions have been resolved. The expert blockchain app developers have taken advantage of going with different consensus mechanisms besides PoW for their projects. 
Besides, concepts like DLT (Decentralized Ledger Technology), IOTA and COTI also have been introduced in this generation and become the answer to how blockchain will change the world.

4. Blockchain 4.0

With businesses lining up to adopt blockchain and making it the central element of their tech solutions, Blockchain 4.0 brings approaches and solutions for industries that make it functional for business demands.
Industry 4.0 focuses on automation, integration of execution frameworks, and enterprise resource planning. Blockchain helps this modern industrial revolution by providing an increasing degree of privacy and security insurance.
Some of the areas where blockchain has proved to be valuable are data collection, asset management, supply chain management, healthcare, and financial transactions among others. This implies that Blockchain 4.0 is making Blockchain 3.0 fit in real-life business scenarios.

Conclusion
While evolving from 1.0 to 4.0, Blockchain gained considerable momentum in the market – in one form.
The technology continued to enjoy wider adoption across the globe – through not uniformly in all countries – a hint of which can be taken from the graph shared below looking into the blockchain impact on the global economy.