Blockchain and AI, particularly machine learning, are two quite recent revolutionary technologies that are being adopted by Governments and Businesses in all sorts of ways. In a series of articles (in 4 parts) I reflect in what ways these technologies have the potential to impact the lives of ordinary citizens. A lot of discussion has been going on about how blockchain and AI affects governments and businesses. If AI has been around for quite a long time, the more recent Blockchain technology, has taken the world by storm, as being a database system that provides us with a simple protocol that allows transactions to be simultaneously anonymous and secure, peer-to-peer, immediate and in constant flow. The beautiful promise of blockchain is that is distributes the trust which is currently allocated to centralized, large and powerful intermediaries, to a large global network of people engaged in massive collaboration, facilitated by clever coding and cryptography.

The Metaverse And NFTs: If the Metaverse is the door to the unique realm of experiences, NFTs are the exclusive keys to that door. These keys are increasingly becoming inevitable for exploring the limitless territories of exciting and personalised digital experiences. With the rising popularity of NFTs, their intrinsic nature makes them the DNA certification for our society. The concept of Metaverse is one of the pillars that are leveraged by the presence of NFTs, playing a pivotal role in building the digital twin of our society. Metaverse can be considered to be an inspiration behind the architectural bedrock of decentralised and interoperable space where real, online, and every kind of experience that was once conceived within the bounds of a science fiction.

Blockchain and AI make a formidable alliance, especially when it comes to security and data management. So in order to protect people's data with blockchain and AI tech for good, we have to build and deploy an ecosystem with an open source set of APIs that limits how much technology makers can learn about individual customers. Artificial Intelligence solutions are already being deployed within all our interactions on social media and the internet, from the sensors on our IoT driven smartphones to our financial, wellness and healthcare data. Adapting future AI, it is now being integrated on the top of blockchains solutions too, especially in the financial industry and supply chain transactions. This will be increasingly intertwined with Machine Learning solutions, capability and even opening up new ways of creating new social media, wellness, and financial products.

Blockchain & AI are the major architecture techs of our time. Its convergence is a key factor for the present & future of tech. These emerging & foundation technologies deal with data, value storage creation and lead the digital transformation of the 4IR. The history of Artificial Intelligence AI began in antiquity, with the power of imagination – myths, stories, rumours making artificial beings endowed with intelligence or consciousness by master craftsmen, magic. The History of Blockchain & Ledgers start when the first recorded ledgers systems were found in Mesopotamia, today's Iraq, 7000 years ago.

Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make.

The ones old enough to remember, might recall the times when image communication seemed a far distant impossible reality… a futuristic dream that would never be achieved! In the last few decades, we have seen what seems like reality surpassing imagination. Incredible technological advancements are happening at such quick pace that one is almost incapable to keep up with all the innovations. And one of the most radical inventions that is promising a tsunami in our lives is AI. The tsunami AI, has been out there actually for a long time.

When digital transformation is done right, it's like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.

Digital Transformation and the 4IR – AI, Blockchain, IoT, Fintech is not a steady, fixed concept. It has evolved swiftly, over the course of various years, by gradual improvements of the technology, particularly the Internet, which fostered increasing digitization. Jeremy Rifkin, a US economist, futurist, and sociologist, who has analysed the shifts in society due to technology over the course of various decades, has written widely about the topic. He was the first one to tackle the impact of digital technologies and how these were triggering what he saw as a profound industrial shift. He described that shift, which he called "third industrial revolution", in his book "The Third Industrial Revolution; How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World" (2011).