This in Ice Valley is returning.

We've been trying to find answers to an unsolved mystery.

And now we're back with an update on the case.

We'll be here to tell you more about it at the end of this podcast.

The Long Island Ice Tea Company, as its name suggests, was in the business of selling beverages.

And not as many as it might have liked.

It lost nearly four million dollars in the third quarter of 2017.

Then the company made an announcement.

It would henceforth be known as the Long Blockchain Corporation.

Would it stop selling beverages?

No, it would still do that.

Would it sell beverages using blockchain?

Well, maybe it would do something to do with blockchain.

Probably.

The details were hazy, but that didn't stop investors getting excited.

The company's share price almost quadrupled.

This is a series about things that made the modern economy, not things that will make the economy of the future.

You might reasonably query whether blockchain yet merits the use of the past tense.

But venture capitalists are pouring billions into startups with more plausible sounding plans than the Long Island Ice Tea Company.

And billions more are being raised in the regulatory grey area of initial coin offerings.

Infusious to say blockchain could become as disruptive as the internet.

Indeed, blockchain is often compared to the World Wide Web in the 1990s.

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