There have been a great number of disruptive technologies in history. Obviously, blockchain technology will be one of the biggest ones yet, but it's also only the tip of the iceberg. While the technology is itself disruptive, we have yet to see the biggest impact.
Examples of Disruptive Technologies
The gasoline-powered engine is a go-to example. In and of itself, it's pretty disruptive. But what really cemented its status was the number of applications for this technology. While there were many engine designs that preceded the gasoline engine, none were as compact and efficient at that point.
The gasoline engine made automobiles possible because the engine was small and efficient enough to displace existing horse-drawn applications.
This is probably why there's an interest for "internet of things" these days. A blockchain interface could theoretically displace existing solutions, but the industry hasn't figured out where exactly.
Another disruptive technology was the transistor. It was able to displace the vacuum tube, but not all at once. There was a seesaw effect where a new transistor design was created and displaced a vacuum tube here and there, but then new uses for vacuum tubes were created. In other words, it wasn't a complete paradigm shift over-night; slowly abandoning the old in favor of the new.
We should not be surprised if blockchain technology experiences a seesaw effect as well, where decentralized solutions come along, but new centralized solutions are created at the same time.
Systems Calibration
You could set up a blockchain to test certified samples of material. Check out this video to get an idea about where I'm going with this:
To implement this, it's not just a matter of testing certified samples and publishing them with the certificate data. The tests and samples have to be paired with a lot of other data like the unit/model of testing equipment, date/time, along with local information like the temperature and humidity of the test. Even then, it'll only help calibrate into the ballpark.
But for certain levels of accuracy, this method might replace having to have physical samples on hand.
Road Construction
Privately funded roads are not a new idea. Voluntarily funded road improvements are even widely used in rural areas in the United States. But they lack organization. Often, that's why government steps in, to centralized decisions and bring organization.
Instead, it'd be great if these projects were managed by a blockchain, complete with surveys and ongoing conditions of each road managed by the platform. It's not just a way to get a new road built, but it's also a way to manage and maintain existing roads.
The way I envision it, your stake isn't consumed when a road is built or improved. Once conditions improve, you can delegate your stake to other road projects.
If you don't like the condition of the roads you use, buy some more tokens and use them to stake improvements. Or, if you think your roads are already doing well, you can re-allocate your stake to areas you'd like to see improved. Maybe they are roads used by your babysitter or employees. Maybe you read an article about the conditions of roads and would like to help out.
Contractors who work on the roads would be paid in road stake, through inflation of the token. That way, they have the option of just selling on an exchange or holding it so they can have a say in future governance.
The blockchain would also have inspectors paid through inflation. These inspectors would evaluate the quality of roads and write reports for stakeholders to evaluate.
A huge advantage to this kind of project is scalability. In its infancy, a project like this might restrict itself to pothole repair. They're often simple repairs that have high profiles, in certain localities. If the platform does a better job than the local government, it might begin to get popular and go from there.
All this to say, we should be prepared to see really boring implementations of blockchain technology. Some of us want to see blockchains topple big governments. But that's not nearly as likely as low-profile applications. Blockchain technology has the ability to displace traditional solutions at any level, at any time. There's no need to have a dramatic changing of the guard right away.