Blockchain technology may soon profoundly transform the economic, financial, and legal reality of entire societies and even systems of government. But is this new financial instrument (a new form of ”tender,” in the sense of money offered for payment) sensitive only to the rules of free-market economics, or also to human rights and sensibilities? Whose needs will determine the direction of change: those of ordinary people, or the financial elite?

The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

Blockchain może zmienić rzeczywistość gospodarczą, finansowo-prawną, a nawet ustrojową całych społeczeństw. Czy jest to narzędzie czułe tylko na prawidła gospodarki rynkowej, czy też na prawa człowieka? Czy kierunki zmian wyznaczą potrzeby zwykłych ludzi, czy elit finansowych?