"Everything and its opposite" - Socio-economic implications of Blockchain technology: Case of monetary policy

The Blockchain technology is a disruptive technology that is changing the societal environment at various levels particularly the financial systems creating a new cryto-economy. There is dominant optimistic and praising view of the potentialities of the decentralized public ledgers. However most of the changes and cutting-edge impact of Blockchain technology remains misunderstood or unknown. This paper aims to propose a more critical perspective of the Blockchain implications highlighting the limitations, the controversies and the drawbacks of public distributed ledgers. An illustration from the monetary system is presented to propose an example of socio-economic implication. By presenting a case regarding the central bank digital currency (CBDC) system, which is now being, introduced as a counter policy against the emergence of the private crypto-currency system. We elaborate what CBDC is trying to solve and yet at the same time what potential problems might arise from this system. We conclude that the introduction of the Blockchain technology should be valued and evaluated in a more thorough way.