Blockchain at Work: How the Technology Is Set to Change How We Live
Blockchain technology is rapidly moving from an abstract concept to a practical backbone for everyday transactions, governance, and identity. From tracing the provenance of luxury goods to recording land titles, the potential across sectors is broad and accelerating. This shift is driven by the demand for transparency, security, and efficiency in processes that historically relied on intermediaries and紙-based, paper-driven workflows. As governments, corporations, and startups explore these capabilities, the technology is poised to alter the fundamental ways people buy, own, and exchange value. The following examination delves into how blockchain works, why it matters beyond finance, the industries most likely to be transformed, and the challenges that must be navigated to realize its full potential. It also highlights the momentum behind adoption, including forecasts about the future scale of blockchain-enabled systems and the implications for global economic activity.
The Promise and Scope of Blockchain
Blockchain is best understood as a distributed ledger: a giant, tamper-evident record of transactions maintained by a network of computer nodes that collectively verify, sequence, and store data. Unlike a centralized database, a blockchain does not rely on a single trusted intermediary. Instead, consensus mechanisms ensure that all participants agree on the state of the ledger in real time, and cryptographic techniques protect the integrity of each entry. This architecture makes the ledger inherently resistant to retroactive tampering, because altering any record would require an impractical amount of computing power to reconcile it across the entire network. The combination of decentralization, real-time synchronization, and chronological sequencing of transactions makes blockchain exceptionally well-suited to recording not only financial assets—such as stocks, bonds, and currencies—but also a wide array of non-financial information.
The implications of this technology extend far beyond the confines of traditional financial markets. In practical terms, blockchain can provide an auditable, immutable trail that traces the origin, movement, and custody of assets as they flow through complex supply chains. This level of traceability is particularly attractive for industries dealing with high-value or easily counterfeited goods, where provenance has a direct impact on consumer trust, regulatory compliance, and pricing. For luxury items—from diamonds to designer handbags—blockchain-enabled provenance gives buyers a verifiable record of authenticity and ownership history. Consumers can see the chain of custody from source to storefront, and even as goods change hands, the ledger retains a chronological account of each transfer. This visibility helps deter fraud, reduce disputes, and improve consumer confidence.
In addition to consumer goods, blockchain is increasingly attractive for public-sector applications. Several governments are exploring blockchain-based registries to record property ownership, land titles, and other critical records. The appeal centers on reducing fraud, enhancing transparency, and shortening the time required to register transactions or verify titles. By providing an immutable, accessible ledger of ownership that is verifiable by multiple parties, blockchain can streamline administrative processes, improve reliability, and broaden access to essential information for citizens and institutions alike.
A striking forecast from the World Economic Forum underscores the broad relevance of blockchain for the global economy. The Forum has suggested that a meaningful share of global gross domestic product will be anchored in blockchain-enabled platforms and records by the mid-2020s. While such projections vary by scenario and country, they reflect a growing consensus that blockchain technology has the potential to alter how assets are traded, how records are kept, and how public and private actors coordinate. This momentum is feeding a new wave of experimentation, with startups and incumbents racing to identify the most valuable use cases and to build scalable, interoperable ecosystems around them.
The practical reality is that blockchain is not just a theoretical exercise. The technology has moved into real-world deployments and pilot programs across multiple industries. Venture capital investment in blockchain-related ventures surged during the early 2020s, supporting a wide range of use cases from supply chain traceability to digital asset custody and beyond. Large financial institutions, including major banks and asset managers, are testing and, in some cases, integrating blockchain-based solutions to streamline workflows, shorten settlement times, and reduce reliance on traditional intermediaries. The speed and breadth of this adoption reflect a broader technology trend: when data integrity, speed, and transparency matter, distributed ledgers offer clear advantages.
In this broader context, it is important to appreciate both the opportunities and the challenges that accompany blockchain adoption. The technology promises substantial efficiency gains and new business models, but it also necessitates careful consideration of governance, data privacy, regulatory compliance, and the reliability of underlying networks. Security is a core concern, particularly when the ledger stores sensitive information or when networks are exposed to potentially adversarial actors. At the same time, questions of interoperability and standardization remain essential as different platforms and protocols proliferate. The path forward involves aligning incentives among diverse stakeholders, designing robust governance arrangements, and ensuring that technical design choices support trustworthy, scalable, and inclusive systems.
In summary, blockchain’s promise rests on three pillars: first, a secure, tamper-evident ledger that can be updated in real time across a distributed network; second, the ability to materially reduce friction and costs by removing unnecessary intermediaries; and third, the potential to broaden access to trusted information across public and private sectors. Together, these elements create a compelling proposition for industries seeking enhanced transparency, efficiency, and accountability, while also presenting safety, privacy, and governance considerations that policymakers, businesses, and researchers must address as adoption accelerates.
The Technology in Practice: From Theory to Everyday Use
The practical implications of blockchain begin with understanding its most tangible features: decentralization, cryptographic security, immutability, and programmable logic via smart contracts. Decentralization distributes authority across a network rather than concentrating it in a single institution. This helps reduce single points of failure and can increase resilience, especially in systems where uptime and integrity are critical. Cryptographic security ensures that data stored on the chain is protected against unauthorized access and tampering, while immutability makes it difficult to alter historical records without detection. Smart contracts add a layer of programmable logic that automatically enforces terms when predefined conditions are met, enabling automated workflows and trustless interactions between parties who may not know or fully trust one another.
Moreover, the ecosystem around blockchain—such as tokens, digital assets, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—extends the concept of trust to new forms of ownership and transfer. NFTs, for example, encode uniqueness and provenance into digital and sometimes physical items, creating tradable representations of value that are verifiable on the blockchain. These innovations have given rise to new business models in media, entertainment, gaming, and collectibles, while also raising questions about rights, licensing, and long-term stewardship.
Despite these advances, blockchain deployments must contend with real-world constraints. Scalability remains a central technical challenge; networks must process large volumes of transactions quickly and securely without compromising decentralization or increasing costs unreasonably. Energy use has also been a topic of discussion, particularly for certain consensus mechanisms, which has spurred ongoing research into more sustainable approaches. Regulatory clarity is another critical factor that shapes adoption, particularly for cross-border transactions and sectors dealing with sensitive data like healthcare and personal identification. The successful deployment of blockchain solutions depends on a careful balance of technical robustness, governance, and alignment with regulatory expectations, all while maintaining user-friendly interfaces and interoperability with legacy systems.
Adoption Trends and Market Dynamics
Across industries, adoption of blockchain is driven by a mix of cost savings, risk reduction, and new capabilities that unlock previously unimaginable business models. The financial sector has long been at the forefront of this transition, but the reach of blockchain is expanding quickly into areas such as supply chain management, digital identity, intellectual property rights, and public administration. The lure for organizations is clear: faster settlement, lower settlement risk, greater transparency, and the ability to orchestrate complex, multi-party processes without relying on a chain of intermediaries.
Investment activity has followed this momentum. Venture capital and corporate investment have poured into blockchain-enabled startups, research initiatives, and platform development. In the early 2020s, the market for blockchain-related ventures attracted significant funding, reflecting investor confidence that distributed ledger technology can scale and deliver measurable business value across sectors. Large financial players, including investment banks and asset managers, have publicly explored or implemented blockchain-based solutions for global payments, post-trade processing, and asset settlement. These efforts aim to streamline workflows, reduce the cost of cross-border transactions, and improve the efficiency and security of financial infrastructure.
Industry forecasts for blockchain-related markets have been optimistic, though they vary by methodology and assumptions about adoption rates and the breadth of use cases. Analysts have projected substantial growth in the blockchain market, influenced by expanding enterprise deployments, new product categories, and the emergence of interoperable ecosystems. The growth trajectory is also shaped by regulatory developments, standardization efforts, and the speed with which enterprises can integrate blockchain with existing technology stacks. In this environment, the most successful initiatives tend to be those that address real pain points—such as speed of settlement, provenance for supply chains, or secure management of sensitive health data—while offering practical paths for integration with current enterprise platforms.
One notable area of interest is the settlement of securities and other financial instruments. The prospect of near-instantaneous settlement could dramatically cut costs for end-users and participants in capital markets. By reducing the need for redundant reconciliation and multiple settlement layers, blockchain-based systems have the potential to shorten the lifecycle of trades and decrease operational risk. The prospect of such improvements has attracted attention from leading financial institutions, which view blockchain as a strategic technology that can reshape core market infrastructures over time. As adoption grows, these institutions are likely to pursue pilots, scale successful pilots into production environments, and collaborate with regulators to address oversight and risk management concerns. The pace and success of these efforts will depend on how quickly interoperable standards emerge, how well privacy and data governance are preserved, and how regulatory frameworks evolve to accommodate new workflows.
In addition to the financial sector, other industries are exploring blockchain for tangible value. The supply chain discipline benefits from immutable provenance data that can be shared among suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and customers. With a shared ledger, participants can verify product origins, track movements across borders, and confirm handoffs at each stage of the chain. This shared visibility can reduce errors, prevent counterfeit items, and shorten the cycle times required to move goods through complex networks. In gaming and digital media, blockchain introduces new monetization models through non-fungible tokens and programmable collectibles, enabling players to own and trade unique digital assets with verifiable history. In healthcare, secure patient data exchange and portable records offer possibilities for more coordinated care while preserving privacy and compliance with data protection standards. These use cases illustrate the breadth of blockchain’s applicability and the importance of designing solutions that align with domain-specific requirements and regulatory expectations.
The World Economic Forum’s forecasts and similar industry analyses suggest a trajectory in which blockchain-enabled activity becomes more deeply embedded in everyday economic activity. As organizations pilot and scale solutions, they typically begin with targeted pain points—reducing intermediaries, improving traceability, or enhancing data security—and gradually expand to broader capabilities as standards and governance mature. The practical outcome is not only cost savings and process improvements but also the creation of new data-driven business models and revenue streams that were previously difficult to realize.
Market Size and Investment Patterns
Market researchers have highlighted the potential for blockchain to generate substantial value across multiple sectors. Early-stage investment has supported a broad and diverse ecosystem of platforms, tooling, and vertical applications. This has catalyzed a broader wave of enterprise deployments, as organizations move from proof-of-concept pilots to production-grade implementations. The emphasis on interoperability—ensuring that different blockchain networks, databases, and legacy systems can communicate effectively—has become a central theme in strategic discussions among executives and IT leaders. Interoperability reduces fragmentation, accelerates value realization, and broadens the set of partners that can participate in joint ventures and consortia.
From a macroeconomic perspective, the adoption of blockchain technologies could influence capital allocation, productivity, and the efficiency of cross-border trade. If adoption continues along current trajectories, the combined effect on transaction costs, settlement times, and trust in digital ecosystems could be meaningful. However, realizing these outcomes depends on concerted efforts to develop governance frameworks, address data privacy and security concerns, and establish regulatory clarity that protects consumers while enabling innovation. The economics of scale will matter—a widely deployed, well-governed network can achieve network effects that make the technology more valuable with each additional participant and dataset. Conversely, poorly governed deployments can generate fragmentation and risk that undermine trust and adoption.
Industry observers also emphasize the importance of clear business cases. Rather than adopting blockchain for its own sake, organizations are focusing on processes where distributed ledgers provide distinct advantages: reduced friction in multi-party workflows, improved traceability and accountability, and stronger cryptographic safeguards for sensitive information. When these conditions are met, blockchain can deliver measurable improvements in cost, speed, and reliability. The path to widespread adoption will require aligning incentives among private firms, public sector entities, and technology providers, as well as investing in talent, governance structures, and user-centric design to ensure that solutions are both secure and usable.
Industry Use Cases in Depth
Blockchain’s real-world value emerges most clearly in concrete use cases. The following subsections explore how blockchain can reshape several key domains, drawing on existing insights and translating them into practical implications for policymakers, business leaders, and technology professionals.
Supply Chains: Transparency, Traceability, and Trust
Supply chains are among the most compelling domains for blockchain-enabled transformation. By recording every step of a product’s journey—from raw material sourcing to manufacturing, distribution, and final delivery—a blockchain ledger creates a transparent, auditable history that is accessible to all authorized participants. This level of visibility helps reduce errors, safeguard against theft or counterfeiting, and speed up recall processes when safety concerns arise. It also provides consumers with verifiable information about the origin and handling of goods, thereby enhancing brand integrity and consumer trust.
For complex goods that traverse multiple countries and regulatory regimes, blockchain can harmonize data standards, document verification, and compliance checks. Smart contracts can automate routine actions, such as releasing payments when goods successfully reach a warehouse or triggering quality-control workflows when certain conditions are met. The cumulative effect is a more efficient, coordinated, and resilient supply chain ecosystem that reduces delays, waste, and the risk of fraud.
Nevertheless, realizing these benefits requires careful attention to data input quality, governance, and the establishment of shared standards. Parties along the supply chain must agree on what data is recorded, who can contribute, and how disputes will be resolved. Privacy considerations also matter, as sensitive supplier information must be protected while maintaining the transparency that drives trust. Still, when designed properly, blockchain-enabled supply chains can deliver tangible improvements in traceability, accountability, and operational efficiency.
Banking and Financial Services: Reimagining Transactions
The financial services sector has long been a proving ground for distributed ledger technology, given the sector’s emphasis on security, settlement speed, and regulatory compliance. Blockchain enables direct, peer-to-peer value transfer with reduced reliance on intermediaries such as correspondent banks and clearinghouses. This can lower transaction costs, speed up cross-border payments, and diminish settlement risk by providing a single, auditable record of ownership and transfer events.
Industry leaders have piloted blockchain solutions for global payments and other post-trade workflows, with pilots often focusing on real-time or near-real-time settlement, improved transparency for counterparties, and reduced reconciliation overhead. The prospective benefits include faster, cheaper, and more secure cross-border transactions, which could transform the experience of consumers and businesses that operate across multiple jurisdictions. As with other sectors, achieving these gains requires robust governance, compliant data handling, and interoperability with existing financial infrastructure. It also demands careful attention to privacy, regulatory alignment, and risk management to ensure that blockchain-based financial systems meet the stringent standards of financial markets.
The competitive dynamics in banking and finance are evolving as institutions explore how to leverage blockchain for efficiency gains while maintaining compliance with evolving regulatory expectations. The field encompasses not only traditional payments and settlement but also areas such as trade finance, asset tokenization, and digital asset custody. The intersection of blockchain with other technologies—for example, advanced analytics, secure multi-party computation, and identity solutions—offers additional avenues to enhance security, transparency, and reliability. As these capabilities mature, banks and fintechs may collaborate on standardized platforms that enable faster innovation, reduce operational risk, and deliver improved services to customers.
Gaming and Digital Assets: Ownership, Trade, and New Economies
Blockchain’s impact on gaming and digital entertainment centers on the concept of digital ownership and transferable value. Players increasingly want to own in-game assets that survive across different game titles, can be traded on secondary markets, and hold verifiable scarcity. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) provide a framework for encoding uniqueness and provenance into digital items, establishing a clear lineage of ownership that is verifiable on the blockchain. This enables new economic dynamics within games and broader digital ecosystems, where rare items may command real-world value and players have more agency in how they monetize their time and creativity.
Games like Axie Infinity and other blockchain-enabled platforms illustrate how players can participate in economic activities that extend beyond entertainment. By breeding, trading, and selling unique digital assets, players create incentives for sustained engagement and value creation. This shift raises important questions about game design, monetization, and player protection, including how royalties, licensing rights, and ownership are defined and enforced on-chain. It also highlights the need for sustainable economic models within games to prevent volatility and ensure long-term player trust and investment.
Beyond entertainment, the convergence of gaming, digital art, and intangible assets points to broader applications in media and content creation. Creators can tokenize and monetize unique works, while platforms can implement transparent mechanisms to track usage, licensing, and revenue distribution. This is an area with considerable potential, supported by ongoing experimentation, funding, and collaboration among developers, publishers, and communities seeking alternative revenue models and more equitable distribution of value.
Healthcare: Data Portability, Privacy, and Patient-Centric Records
Blockchain’s promise in healthcare centers on secure, portable health records that patients can control. A blockchain-based approach can enable patients to carry their medical histories across providers and systems, facilitating continuity of care and reducing redundancy in testing and admissions. When designed with privacy in mind, such systems can give patients granular control over who can access their data and for what purposes, while still ensuring that clinicians have timely access to essential information for treatment, diagnostics, and care coordination.
The potential benefits extend to emergency scenarios, where a patient’s medical history can be rapidly accessed by authorized professionals to inform urgent care decisions. In addition, the technology can support secure sharing of research data and contribute to more efficient clinical trials by ensuring data integrity and provenance. However, significant challenges must be addressed, including the governance of sensitive data, consent mechanisms, and the protection of patient privacy in a landscape where data is dispersed among multiple institutions and jurisdictions. Technical solutions such as selective disclosure, encryption, and secure access controls are crucial components of any healthcare blockchain deployment.
Blockchain can also function as a personal health record tool, giving consumers more control over their health information and the ability to share data with select providers as they choose. This patient-centric approach aligns with broader shifts toward data empowerment and consent-based data sharing, reinforcing the role of the patient as an active participant in their own care. Yet, the potential for security vulnerabilities, data breaches, and regulatory considerations requires careful design, rigorous testing, and ongoing oversight by healthcare authorities and institutions to ensure safety, reliability, and trust in such systems.
Synthesis: Integrating Use Cases into a Coherent Public-Private Framework
The most compelling blockchain deployments are those that connect multiple stakeholder communities—governments, enterprises, startups, and consumers—around shared data standards, governance principles, and interoperable infrastructure. A coherent framework for blockchain adoption emphasizes modular architecture, open standards, and layered security that protects privacy while maintaining trust across the ecosystem. Investments in regulatory sandboxes, standards development, and cross-border data governance can accelerate learning and enable scalable solutions that address real-world needs.
In practice, successful adoption requires a blend of technical excellence, policy clarity, and business incentives. Organizations must define clear objectives for what blockchain will achieve and how success will be measured. They should also establish governance mechanisms that define roles, responsibilities, and decision rights, ensuring that the network remains resilient and accountable as it grows. Interoperability and data governance become not just technical requirements but strategic imperatives that determine how quickly and effectively blockchain can deliver value across sectors.
Economic Impact and Future Outlook
The rapid development and deployment of blockchain technologies are intertwined with broader economic implications. If blockchain-enabled systems achieve scale and widespread acceptance, they can influence the efficiency of financial markets, the transparency of supply chains, and the accessibility of vital data assets. In real estate and property records, blockchain could streamline title transfers and reduce opportunities for fraud by providing an authoritative, readily verifiable record of ownership changes and encumbrances. In financial markets, faster settlement and lower friction can lower costs for end-users and improve the efficiency of global capital flows. Across these domains, the cumulative effect could contribute to measurable improvements in productivity and economic resilience.
A growing body of analysis points to substantial market potential. Some forecasts anticipate that the size of blockchain-enabled markets could reach trillions of dollars by the end of the decade, driven by adoption across industries and the emergence of scalable platforms that support diverse applications. The trajectory will depend on several factors, including how quickly enterprises can integrate blockchain with existing technology stacks, how regulators shape the operating environment, and how user-friendly and secure the solutions prove to be. The pace of adoption will also be influenced by the development of interoperable standards, the maturity of security practices, and the ability of organizations to implement governance models that balance innovation with risk management.
From the perspective of global economic activity, blockchain has the potential to reduce friction in cross-border trade, improve the efficiency of administrative processes, and enable more equitable access to digital assets and services. In real estate, settlements and title transfers could occur with greater speed and lower risk, transforming the dynamics of property markets and mortgage processes. The broader economy could benefit from a more efficient allocation of capital, lower transaction costs, and enhanced transparency in markets that have historically struggled with opacity and inefficiency. These outcomes would contribute to a more dynamic, competitive, and inclusive economy, but realizing them requires concerted action from policymakers, industry leaders, and technology developers to align incentives and create sustainable, scalable ecosystems.
PwC and other major research firms have highlighted that blockchain development could contribute meaningfully to the global economy in the coming years, with projections indicating significant upside potential depending on the scope of adoption across different regions and sectors. The ultimate magnitude of impact will be shaped by how broadly the technology is applied, how responsibly it is governed, and how well it integrates with complementary technologies such as cloud computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. The future of blockchain will be defined by a combination of technical breakthroughs, policy clarity, market demand, and the collaborative innovation that emerges from public-private initiatives, industry consortia, and cross-sector partnerships.
Realistic Milestones and Roadmap
Looking ahead, milestones likely to shape the blockchain landscape include the maturation of standards for data formats, identity management, and interoperability across networks. Regulators will increasingly engage with industry players to craft proportionate rules that protect consumers while not stifling innovation. Enterprises will continue to run pilots that demonstrate cost savings, risk reductions, and new monetization opportunities, with a focus on scaling successful pilots into production-grade deployments. Education and talent development will also be essential, as organizations need a workforce capable of designing, deploying, and governing complex distributed systems. The result could be a more robust digital infrastructure that underpins a wide range of services, from financial markets and supply chains to healthcare and public administration.
As adoption broadens, the technology will likely become embedded in the fabric of daily operations for many organizations. The early movers will be those that identify clear value propositions, build secure and user-friendly solutions, and establish governance and compliance frameworks that address risk while enabling continuous innovation. Over time, the benefits may accrue not only in operational efficiency but also in the creation of new marketplaces, new forms of digital ownership, and more transparent governance structures across both the private and public sectors.
Risks, Challenges, and Governance
Despite its promise, blockchain presents several notable challenges that must be addressed to achieve sustainable, scalable deployment. Data privacy remains a central concern, particularly when handling sensitive information such as personal records or confidential business data. Even as blockchain provides an immutable ledger, there must be robust methods for controlling who can view or contribute data, and for ensuring that sensitive information is not exposed inadvertently through the use of public or semi-public networks. Techniques such as permissioned ledgers, privacy-preserving cryptography, and selective disclosure are important aspects of responsible implementation.
Regulatory uncertainty is another critical risk factor. Jurisdictions differ in how they treat digital assets, data sovereignty, and cross-border data transfers, which can complicate multi-national deployments. Effective governance frameworks and clear regulatory guidance help reduce compliance risk and enable more predictable outcomes for organizations investing in blockchain-based solutions. Organizations should engage with regulators early to understand expectations and to design systems that align with evolving rules while preserving innovation.
Interoperability remains a foundational requirement for realizing blockchain’s broader potential. Fragmentation across platforms can hinder value creation by making it difficult for data to flow freely and for networks to coordinate with one another. Industry collaboration, standardization efforts, and the development of interoperable APIs and protocols are essential for building scalable ecosystems that can support diverse use cases and participants.
Security is another ongoing concern. While blockchain itself offers strong properties for integrity and tamper resistance, the broader ecosystem—smart contracts, wallets, or ancillary infrastructure—may introduce vulnerabilities. attackers may target weak points in application layers, identity management, or user interfaces. A robust security program—including formal verification, code audits, continuous monitoring, and incident response planning—is essential to reduce the risk of exploitations and to protect stakeholders’ assets and data.
Finally, broad adoption hinges on user-friendly design and compelling business value. For widespread use, blockchain solutions must offer intuitive experiences, easy onboarding, and clear demonstrations of return on investment. Without these factors, even technically robust systems risk underutilization or misalignment with organizational goals. The path to broad adoption includes practical pilots, scalable architectures, and governance that ensures accountability, transparency, and stakeholder alignment.
Conclusion
Blockchain technology is moving from conceptual promise to a practical engine of transformation across multiple sectors. Its core attributes—decentralization, cryptographic security, immutability, and programmable logic—enable new forms of trust, transparency, and efficiency that can reshape how goods are produced, tracked, and exchanged, as well as how records are created and maintained by governments and institutions. The potential benefits span improved provenance for luxury goods and commodities, faster and cheaper settlement in financial markets, secure and portable health records, and innovative models for digital ownership in gaming and entertainment. In supply chains, blockchain’s traceability can dramatically reduce errors and fraud while boosting consumer confidence. In finance, it can streamline cross-border payments and settlement, potentially lowering costs for end-users and institutions alike. In healthcare, patient data portability and secure inter-provider access hold the promise of more coordinated care and better outcomes, provided privacy and governance concerns are addressed. Across industries, the movement toward interoperable platforms, standardized governance, and regulatory clarity is accelerating, underscoring a trajectory toward more integrated, efficient, and trustworthy digital ecosystems.
The journey ahead will require sustained collaboration among policymakers, industry participants, technology providers, and the broader public. Realizing blockchain’s full value depends on thoughtful governance, robust security practices, and the development of standards that enable seamless interoperability. It also depends on the cultivation of talent and the creation of incentives that encourage responsible experimentation and scalable deployment. If these elements align, blockchain could become a foundational layer for the future of work, commerce, and public administration—one that enhances trust, unlocks new value, and helps societies navigate a rapidly changing digital landscape.
