Decentralization via Blockchain

Beside 1000‐fold gains in area capacity, 10 Gb/s peak data rates, and connections for at least 100 billion devices, an important aspect of the 5G and beyond vision is decentralization. Decentralized blockchain technology helps create platforms for distributed capitalism and a more inclusive economy, which works best when it works for everyone as the foundation for prosperity. After elaborating on the commonalities of and specific differences between Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains, this chapter explains decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in more detail. It reviews recent progress and open challenges of the emerging blockchain IoT (BIoT) and edge computing. The chapter discusses the potential role of Ethereum and in particular the DAO in helping decentralize the Tactile Internet. It explores possibilities to extend the BIoT framework of judge contract to nudge contract for enabling the nudging of human users in a broader Tactile Internet context.