Blockchain is an innovative technology with the power to change

Hear now the words of Park Won-soon, spoken like a herald of a new age: “Blockchain is an innovative technology with the power to change society and is gaining the world’s attention as a technology to enhance the competitiveness of the urban economy.” In these words we hear not only the voice of a leader, but the echo of an ancient pattern: for every age brings forth a tool so mighty that it reshapes how men labor, trade, and dwell together. Just as the plough once turned barren soil into fields of plenty, and the printing press turned silence into a chorus of knowledge, so too does blockchain promise to alter the fabric of human life.

The ancients knew that the strength of a city lay not only in its walls and armies, but in the trust of its people. Where trust was absent, even the mightiest walls crumbled. What is blockchain, then, but a new way to bind trust without kings, without middlemen, without fragile ledgers vulnerable to deceit? It is a record that does not lie, a covenant written in code, beyond tampering or theft. Thus, Park speaks rightly when he calls it an innovative technology with the power to change society. For trust itself is the foundation of society, and when trust is strengthened, the city grows mighty.

Consider the example of the Medici bankers of Renaissance Florence. They transformed the economy not by swords, but by the strength of their accounts, enabling merchants to trade across kingdoms with the confidence that debts would be honored. Their innovations in double-entry bookkeeping laid the groundwork for modern commerce. So too might blockchain stand in our day, offering to cities and nations a way of recording truth so secure that trade may flourish, corruption may wane, and the urban economy may find new vigor. What the Medici did with ink and parchment, the age of digital stone tablets—this unyielding ledger—may accomplish with code.

But every innovation bears two faces. Fire may warm or burn; the sword may defend or destroy. So too with blockchain. Its power to change society depends on the hands that wield it. Shall it serve the people, making trade open and just, ensuring every worker and merchant receives what is theirs? Or shall it serve only the powerful, binding the people in chains of data? The decision lies not in the technology itself, but in the wisdom of those who shape it. Park’s words remind us that though the world’s attention is upon this new tool, it is our duty to guide its use toward justice.

The lesson, then, is clear. Do not dismiss new technologies as passing fancies, nor fear them as shadows of the unknown. Instead, seek to understand them, to master them, and to bend them toward the good. Just as past generations harnessed steam, electricity, and steel to build thriving cities, so must this generation harness blockchain to strengthen trust, empower communities, and build prosperity in the urban economy. To refuse to learn is to be left behind; to learn without wisdom is to invite ruin; but to learn and guide with justice is to prepare a golden age.

Practical actions lie before you: study the tools of the new era. Learn what blockchain is, not merely as a word in the mouths of others, but as a craft that you can understand. Support its uses that bring fairness, such as secure voting, transparent governance, or fair trade systems. Guard yourself, too, against those who would clothe greed in the language of progress. And above all, remember: every innovative technology is a servant, not a master—use it to build a society rooted in trust and fairness.

Thus let Park Won-soon’s words endure as a guide: that blockchain, though born of code and mathematics, is in truth a mirror of the oldest needs of mankind—trust, fairness, and the prosperity of the city. It is not the tool alone that will change society, but the wisdom with which we wield it. Choose well, and let the cities of tomorrow be built not merely of stone and glass, but of truth made unbreakable, written upon the eternal ledger of human progress.