Billions of dollars are being spent, right now, to solve a problem we didn’t know existed a few years ago. 

The problem boils down to creating a decentralized app platform that’s secure, scalable and governed in a fair, transparent way. And the solution might change the world in a similar way the internet did a few decades back.

This is the race to build the next blockchain. Blockchain, often defined as a "digitized, decentralized, public ledger," is already a proven technology. But it's far from perfect, and improvements could extend its utility far beyond cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, are widely regarded as immensely promising, hindered only by a few obstacles. Unfortunately, these obstacles aren't all that easy to overcome.

Bitcoin, a decentralized currency and payment network, is secure and robust, but very limited as an app platform. It also doesn’t scale well, and is largely at the whim of a couple of large entities known as mining pools. Ethereum is far more versatile and a bit faster, but otherwise has the same problems Bitcoin has, and is arguably less secure.

Name any blockchain-based system that’s live right now, and it suffers from the same issues, only to different degrees. It either isn't scalable enough, versatile enough, or decentralized enough. Building a system with all three traits is the holy grail of blockchain tech right now, and a lot of very smart, well-funded people are scrambling to be the first to do it.