The convergence of exponential technologies
Solution /səˈluːʃ(ə)n/: a means of solving a problem or dealing with a difficult situation
We live in exponential times. As might be clear by now, Blockchain is a disruptive technology and it will have a massive impact on how we live, work, and build our societies. Distributed ledgers facilitate trustless peer-to-peer transactions, removing the need for intermediaries and making data immutable, verifiable, and traceable. It has been said that blockchain will do for transactions what the advent of the internet did for the sharing of information. Leaders, organisations, and societies that want to innovate and lead the pack should be aware of Blockchain and how it will change—well everything. In writing this book, it was our objective to offer you some insights into how Blockchain could be used to create a better world and not just focus on the commercial benefits of Blockchain. Of course, Distributed Ledger Technology provides ample opportunities for organisations to create better products and services, reduce their costs, and improve their bottom line significantly. However, as may be clear by now, the technology can also be used for the social good and create a better, fairer, and more equal world. Of course, if you look at the statistics as discussed in Chapter 4, you can argue that we have never had it better, but that does not mean that we can sit back and relax. Climate change is a severe threat to humanity, over 700 million people still live in extreme poverty [147], corruption, fraud, money laundering activities, and censorship continue to take place on a wide scale across the globe, and Fair Trade often is not really fair at all. In addition, our current identity system is long overdue for a replacement, which in itself would help solve many of the Wicked Problems discussed in this book.
Blockchain is not, however, the only disruptive technology coming our way. Currently, the world experiences an accelerated change and many disruptive technologies are coming to fruition. Big data analytics, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, Virtual and Augmented Reality, 3D printing, robotics, and quantum computing are just a few of the technologies that will increasingly have an impact on our lives. When these technologies converge, a radical shift, or a ‘gestalt shift’, will occur, which means that the character of the experience will drastically change. All of a sudden, we can see the world through a different, more technologically advanced, lens and this opens up a completely new perspective. The convergence of multiple disruptive technologies will offer us new possibilities and solutions to improve our lives and create better organisations and societies, as well as build a better world all together. Let’s briefly discuss three of them, which we believe are also key to solving the Wicked Problems that have been discussed. We do not go into too much depth, because there are plenty of other books that cover these topics in great detail.
First of all, big data analytics. Big data refers to the creation, storage, and usage of data in high velocity, volume, variety, and variability. In recent years, we have been generating large amounts of data, which is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years [341]. Big data changes organisations, and their culture and identity, as well as decision-making [342, 343]. For many organisations, the most likely path to competitive advantage is via big data analytics [344]. Hence, it is not only start-ups such as Uber or AirBnB that can profit from a data-driven approach [345]—any company has become a data business where big data analytics is now a prerequisite to understand the environment and remain competitive. Big data analytics offers organisations competitive advantage and can help not-for-profit organisations and governments create better products and services.
There are three stages of big data analytics of which it is important to be aware: descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics, where each stage offers more and better insights into creating a better organisation. Each phase also growths in complexity as does the value it can offer the organisation. [345a]
Descriptive analytics enables organisations to understand their environment and it is similar to looking into the rear-view mirror of your car—using a variety of structured datasets and statistical methods to achieve insights about what has happened from a second ago to decades ago. Predictive analytics improves decision-making across an organisation [346], in order to understand how to respond to the changing environment. It is your car’s navigation system that tells you the fastest route despite a traffic jam. [345a] Predictive analytics uses artificial intelligence to find patterns and relationships in multiple (un)structured data sources to create recommendations [347]. Organisations that use predictive analytics gain a competitive advantage, because they can anticipate the future [348]. Finally, prescriptive analytics transforms an organisation and is the final stage in understanding a business. It allows a permanent and real-time (re)alignment of (in)tangible assets based on recommendations obtained from analysing unstructured and structured data sources. It uses a variety of algorithms and data-modelling techniques to offer recommendations on how to take advantage of predictions provided. Continuing with the car metaphor, it is like a self-driving car bringing you autonomously to your destination. [345a]
Organisations that make data and insights from widely available data experience a shift in the power structure within the business; decision-making power moves from those leaders with the most experience to anyone who has access to data and the analytic tools to derive insights from it. In a data-driven business, the real decision-makers within an organisation are not senior managers or C-level executives, but those employees who face the customer or are directly involved in creating the product or service. Some leaders might be reluctant to accept this shift in power, but, only when all leaders accept such a power shift, can the organisation truly benefit from big data analytics. Empowered employees are more likely to collaborate with different stakeholders to create the best result for the business, because they feel more involved and more responsible for the success of the organisation. In this way, those organisations that want to remain competitive in a constantly changing and increasingly data-driven world should foster employee collaboration and promote the use of (advanced) analytics across the business, and network organisations in particular are in the right position to do so. However, big data analytics does not only offer benefits for commercial organisations. In fact, big data analytics is a key aspect of solving the Wicked Problems discussed in this book.
Data has become a fundamental factor in every part of our lives, businesses, and societies. Almost any new technology generates data nowadays and every business has become a data business that happens to make product X or Y. The same goes for any not-for-profit or government institution—all have become data organisations that happen to offer service X or Y. For example, a car company is a data company that helps people move from A to B, whereas a bank is a data company that happens to help customers with their financial needs. Viewing your organisation from this new perspective will enable you to find new solutions, develop better products, and offer improved services. The same goes for the Wicked Problems discussed in this book. If we see them as a data problem, it will become a little bit easier to solve them.
The United Nations also saw the potential of big data analytics. In 2009, they launched the Global Pulse initiative, which serves as an innovation lab to raise awareness of the opportunities that big data brings. The objective is to be a catalyst for big data adoption and bring together different stakeholders, such as big data scientists, data providers, governments, and development sector practitioners [269]. Climate change is one of the areas that can benefit from big data analytics by monitoring processes that previously could not be monitored. The UN’s Global Pulse data analytics initiative launched the Big Data Climate Challenge in 2014. This programme funded, among others, programmes to monitor deforestation by combining satellite data, crowd-sourced witness accounts, and public data. These insights help policy-makers and organisations, such as Nestlé or Unilever, ensure that their activities do not worsen deforestation [349, 350]. On the other hand, poverty can be reduced by providing the right medicines to the right people at the right moment [351], as we have already shown in the fictional business in Chapter 4. A programme called SMS for Life significantly improved the distribution of malaria drugs in Tanzania, by predicting demand more accurately [352]. A big data study by the World Bank revealed that, in many countries, people are not literally starving of hunger, because they have enough food, but that they are dying because the food was not nutritious enough. As a result, governments could change their aid by focusing on more nutritious food rather than subsidising rice or noodles [353]. Fraud, corruption, or money laundering, in any industry, can also of course be reduced using big data analytics. With an estimated US$3.5 trillion in revenue lost every year due to fraudulent activities [354], there is a huge incentive for organisations to look into the details. Pattern recognition and anomaly detection will offer insights into cases that are out of the ordinary and require additional attention. The more such analytics can be automated using artificial intelligence, the better we will be able to find solutions to the Wicked Problems. It is for these reasons that the advances in artificial intelligence are so promising.
In 2017, AlphaGo Zero, the new and improved version of the AlphaGo algorithm developed by Google’s DeepMind, was released. Although previous versions of AlphaGo had been trained using human data, this version of the algorithm is completely self-trained, with no human intervention or historical data. This is a mind-blowing feature, especially given that, within three days of teaching itself how to play the game, it beat the version that beat Lee Sedol in 2016. It did so using a new form of reinforcement learning where the algorithm became its own teacher. It played against itself, which meant that it always had a component of equal strength, and learned from every move it made. Although the previous version that beat Lee Sedol already surprised the world champion with moves he had never seen or thought about, the new version applies completely unknown strategies that it had taught itself. As a result, after 40 days it surpassed all previous versions of AlphaGo and, arguably, became the best AlphaGo player in the world. This was a significant event in the world of artificial intelligence, because it represented a new form of artificial intelligence—intuitive artificial intelligence, something that is remarkably more challenging than standard artificial intelligence.
The disruption happening thanks to algorithms is taking place all around us. The largest taxi company in the world, Uber, owns no taxis, but uses smart algorithms to connect drivers and passengers. The largest telephone company in the world, WhatsApp, has no telecom infrastructure, but sends over 35 billion messages per day. Finally, the world’s second most valuable retailer, Alibaba, owns no inventory but uses algorithms to help others sell products. Companies such as Uber, WhatsApp, and Alibaba clearly show that artificial intelligence can disrupt an entire industry [345]. However, we are just at the start of this disruption and the coming decade will probably see all industries being disrupted thanks to artificial intelligence. Gartner calls this trend the ‘Algorithmic Business’ and it will fundamentally change how we do business and run our governments [355, 356].
The algorithmic organisation is an organisation built around smart algorithms—algorithms that define company processes, deliver customer services, take action when necessary, and as such define the way the world works. In order to understand all the data coming our way, artificial intelligence will be required. Thanks to machine learning and deep learning, these algorithms will be able to understand customer behaviour, learn from devices, and perform the right action accordingly. Algorithms will optimise your supply chain, drive your cars, monitor your robots, determine the right marketing message, and even become your boss.
Thanks to technological advances, companies and consumers are generating more and more data. Some organisations, such as Walmart, create and store dozens of petabytes of data every day [357]. Collecting and storing massive amounts of data is not, however, enough to solve some of the Wicked Problems. For this to happen, organisations must do more than simply analyse the data. It is about what actions you can derive from your data in order to add value. Algorithms define actions and they are pieces of software that are extremely good at very specific actions, much better than humans are. As a result, the more algorithms used within organisations, the more people will be out of a job in the future. In fact, 2013 research from Oxford University and Deloitte estimated that in the UK alone, more than 35% of current jobs are at high risk due to computerisation [358]. And the UK is not alone. The same research estimated that almost 47% of US jobs could be lost due to algorithmic business within one or two decades. A society with almost half the workforce without a job does sound frightening and is another Wicked Problem to be dealt with. However, if we prepare ourselves today it also offers great possibilities to drastically improve our societies.
Artificial intelligence is already applied in a variety of ways. Organisations such as Associated Press use algorithms to write financial reports at a rate of 2000 stories per minute. Of course, these are not in-depth, award-winning articles, but business-related stories, such as quarterly earnings, involving stock market performance and corporate profits—stories, however, these used to be written by humans. Does this mean robot journalists are putting journalists out of business? No, at least not yet, although the developments in artificial intelligence that can write a readable novel are progressing rapidly. Also worth mentioning is Lapetus, a start-up that promises to use artificial intelligence to analyse your selfies and determine whether or not you will be accepted for life insurance, within 2 minutes.
The algorithmic organisation has the potential to change society and recent developments are bringing us closer to the holy grail of artificial intelligence: artificial general intelligence (AGI), which means artificial intelligence as smart as humankind. AGI is becoming possible because of deep learning, which is a subfield of machine learning and inspired by the neural networks in our brain. The objective is to create artificial neural networks that can find patterns in vast amounts of data. Deep learning is becoming widely available now, because of the increased computing power and large datasets that are available to scientists around the globe. New deep learning applications could have a significant impact on our lives and help solve some of the Wicked Problems.
Deep learning algorithms are not trained by humans. Rather, they are exposed to massive datasets, millions of videos/images/articles, etc. and the algorithms must figure out for themselves how to recognise different objects, sentences, images, etc. As a result, they can come up with solutions no humans could have thought of, so without big data this would not have been possible. For example, in 2016 a set of algorithms developed an encryption algorithm that humans could not decipher, because it was using patterns humans would never use [359]. Naturally, artificial intelligence is particularly well suited to solving Wicked Problems, because they can easily process large amounts of data and confusing information, link it back to any stakeholders involved, and propose solutions that could point us in the right direction. The more intelligent artificial intelligence becomes, the more useful it becomes in solving our Wicked Problems. In fact, already artificial intelligence can no longer be ignored when trying to solve Wicked Problems. For every Wicked Problem discussed in this book, it is vital to have vast amounts of data, and artificial intelligence can then be used to recognise patterns, discover (inter)dependencies, understand differences and similarities, classify data automatically, make predictions, and take action accordingly. Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, the division within Google responsible for AlphaGo and doing ground-breaking research on artificial intelligence, said ‘the goal is to harness artificial intelligence for grand challenges. If we can solve intelligence in a general enough way, then we can apply it to all sorts of things to make the world a better place’ [360]. The more data available to artificial intelligence, the better it will become, because deep learning feeds on big data. This is why the Internet of Things is so important, because it has the potential to increase the amount of data exponentially.
The Internet of Things, Industrial Internet, or the Internet of Everything, no matter how you name it, will change everything and create massive amounts of sensor data. According to Cisco, it is going to be a US$19 trillion market within the coming decade [361]. This includes a projected US$2.9 trillion for the Industrial Internet. Gartner predicts that, by 2020, 150 new devices will be connected to the internet, every second, resulting in approximately 50 billion sensors in the coming decade to around 100 trillion connected sensors by 2030 [355]. When you have billions and billions of devices connected to the internet, it changes your perspective, especially when these connected devices are becoming truly smart. Robots, autonomous vehicles or boats, drones, and any other Internet of Things product will become increasingly intelligent. These devices will become a lot better at understanding the user and adapting the product or service to its needs and context. Software updates will be done over the air, reducing the need to constantly buy a new product.
The Internet of Things is all about actions taken by artificial intelligence based on the data that is generated by the connected devices, resulting in massive amounts of data that need to be analysed to understand what’s going on. For example, you have a connected thermostat and your car knows that you are driving home; your car knows that the temperature is low in your house and tells the thermostat to turn up the heating. When you arrive home, it is nice, warm, and cosy inside.
Artificial intelligence will significantly influence the Internet of Things. Without artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things would not be possible, because analysing the vast amounts of raw sensor data can be achieved only with algorithms that can take automatic action at the right moment. Of course, what an algorithm can do for your home can also be done on a large scale in your organisation or within a government. As Senior VP at Gartner, Peter Sondergaard explained: ‘algorithms define action’ and ‘by 2020, smart agents will facilitate 40% of interactions’ [355].
Algorithms will also be able to take into account the context—context that is so important, and necessary, to truly understand what is going on within a particular process, individual, business, or connected device. With sufficient data sources from connected devices that each tell their side of the story, algorithms will be able to determine the right action based on a myriad of data points. In essence, artificial intelligence combined with the Internet of Things will be able to find the right business moments, make meaningful connections, predict all kinds of behaviour, help solve Wicked Problems, and so improve organisations, governments, and our society.
The contribution of the Internet of Things to solving Wicked Problems is by enabling new data sources that can be analysed. For example, smart grids, as discussed in Chapter 6, offer all sorts of new possibilities thanks to smart meters. These connected devices monitor what is going on, for example in your home or office building, and artificial intelligence will then take action accordingly, make secure transactions that are recorded on a blockchain, and save or make you money. The more devices connected to the internet, the better we will be able to analyse a variety of processes, and insights from these analyses will help us solve multiple Wicked Problems.
10.4 The convergence of technology
The convergence of technologies such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things with Distributed Ledger Technologies such as blockchain will mark a paradigm shift in our world. In fact, you cannot see these technologies as separate, and combined they will strengthen each other. Once these technologies have been brought together, we have a real chance of solving all the Wicked Problems that discussed in this book, and possibly many more. Connected devices and online services will increase the amount of data available, which can then be analysed by smart algorithms. Blockchain will ensure that data transferred between different actors will be immutable, verifiable, and traceable. In addition, any smart contract recorded on a blockchain will enable intelligent automation, where the output of one smart contract can become the input of another, thereby creating smart, decentralised, autonomous organisations.
However, all this technology will also have a downside and create new Wicked Problems. One of these is the jobless future, where robots and artificial intelligence have taken over most of the jobs available. Many jobs that we believe, or used to believe, were immune to automation are also being affected by artificial intelligence. There are already restaurants without staff, where the burgers are made by a robot or the sushi is delivered by a robot. The company Momentum Machines, for example, has made a robot that produces burgers, which replaces two or three fast food cooks. As Momentum Machines cofounder Alexandros Vardakostas said in 2012: ‘our device isn’t meant to make employees more efficient, it’s meant to completely obviate them.’ However, the redundancy does not stop there—the more complicated jobs such as accountants, truck drivers, or customer service agents will be taken over by algorithms and robots. If you believe that software development would be safe, forget it. In 2017, Google worked on developing an algorithm that was more capable of creating new code than the programmers who created the algorithm in the first place. In 2017, they unveiled a new approach using neural networks to train artificial intelligence to build better neural networks. The technology, called AutoML, uses reinforcement learning and is capable of creating networks that are more powerful, more efficient, and better to use than what developers can build. The more advanced artificial intelligence becomes in the next decade, the more jobs will disappear as a result. Therefore, a future in which robots and algorithms have taken over 50% or more of our jobs, is, according to us, a very realistic scenario. The questions that remain are when will this happen and how we should approach this Wicked Problem.
Fortunately, the technology that will put many of us out of a job can also be used to find a solution. Already, some governments are experimenting with Blockchain for welfare payments. The UK collaborates with Barclays, the UK arm of German energy firm RWE, fintech start-up GovCoin, and University College London to send welfare payments using the blockchain and record any payments sent or received by welfare recipients [362]. Finland takes it to the next level—they are the first country in the world to have started a large experiment with an unconditional basic income for a group of 2000 unemployed Finns, aged 25–58 years, in order to prepare for a jobless future. According to several Finnish experts, the blockchain technology offers significant benefits for an unconditional basic income scheme, including transparency, while ensuring privacy, automating government tasks, reducing any bureaucracies, and as such significantly reducing costs associated with government services [363]. An unconditional basic income is one solution to solving the issue of a jobless future and it will enable humans to focus on other aspects of life such as creativity and self-actualisation. Of course, a basic income for all citizens does not come cheap, so governments should streamline any tax systems currently in place, remove any social and tax benefits, and therefore opt for a simplified tax system. Blockchain would enable this, especially when a country uses an existing, or its own future, cryptocurrency such as the crypto-dollar, crypto-euro or crypto-yuan. It would make any tax payment or social benefit immutable, verifiable, and traceable, while ensuring anonymity. Added benefit is that doing your annual taxes will be automated as well.
The convergence of emerging technologies is rapidly changing how we live, work, and run our societies, and it is important for governments to investigate how these technologies can be used to create a better, more inclusive, fairer, and transparent society, while respecting citizens’ privacy and security. Starting with moving basic government services to the blockchain, such as is currently happening in Estonia and Dubai, is very promising and gives these countries a competitive advantage over other countries, and a possibility of contributing to reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
10.5 The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
The blockchain revolution has given rise to billions of dollars in investment in potential applications. Some of those projects have revealed other uses for distributed ledgers and similar non-blockchain programmes. A number of the Sustainable Development Goals developed by the UN may be more achievable with blockchain capacity. The creation of verifiable digital identities authenticates supply chains, and immutable records and transactions can all contribute to ensuring that trade is fair, tax is paid, votes are counted, provenance is respected, and displaced populations have an enduring identity and qualifications, despite a lack of documentation. The benefits of digitising identities become more apparent as populations are displaced by war or environmental catastrophe. In the future, climate change has the potential to create a new generation of displacement. With digital identities, human movement does not have to result in the loss of those attributes that we need to prove in order to make a new life in a new place. It is possible for entire nations to be recorded along with their digitised archives and history. Whether it is Kiribati losing land to rising water levels or Estonia’s fear of the return of a Soviet-like regime, the blockchain can securely record sufficient information to identify individuals and their personal attributes. It can manage permissions and provenance so that the use of sensitive and private information is controlled by the technology, and not by a third party in a fixed location that has been destroyed or dissipated.
10.6 A Blockchain roadmap for your business
Knowledge of what blockchain is and how it can contribute to solving some of the world’s biggest challenges is one thing; knowledge of how to develop a blockchain strategy is another thing altogether. Meanwhile, understanding how to implement a blockchain strategy within your business is even more difficult.
Blockchain, particularly when used in concert with emerging technologies, such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence, or the Internet of Things, offers organisations an opportunity to re-think their internal processes, remove inefficiencies, and build a better organisation. However, within large process-oriented organisations, transforming a centralised business to a decentralised organisation, in which cryptography is used to create trust, smart contracts automate decision-making, and governance is embedded in code, can be a daunting task. In fact, the steps that are needed to transform your business into a decentralised organisation are clear and straightforward. Therefore, we wish to provide you with a roadmap as to how your business could start with and benefit from blockchain. Because, although blockchain can help solve the Wicked Problems discussed and improve our world, it can also transform your business.
Step 1: understanding blockchain
Hopefully, this book has offered you a clear understanding of what Blockchain is and what its different components are. At its core, Blockchain is nothing more than a database technology, but the implications of the technology are transformative and can be far reaching. Therefore, it is crucial that the organisation has a shared understanding of what Blockchain is and what it can do for your organisation or industry. As the wide range of Blockchain start-ups discussed in this book shows, Blockchain can be applied to any industry and any business objective. For each industry, Blockchain offers different opportunities, ranging from data or product provenance, improved identity, and verification systems, to increased payment efficiencies. Therefore, creating a shared understanding, at the board level, of what Blockchain can do for your business is a vital first step.
Knowing what Blockchain is and what it can do for your business will help to win management support and buy in from the rest of the organisation. With the enormous potential of Blockchain, it is more a strategy matter than an IT one. This is particularly because, if you wish to take Blockchain seriously, it will take time and in the beginning the return on investments may be unclear and could even be negative. Possession of a shared understanding of the decentralised future of your business will help in achieving your long-term vision.
Step 2: identify the problem that you want to solve
This is a crucial step towards the strategic adoption of blockchain technology. Many problems can be solved with a database or even a spreadsheet. As blockchain technology is a financial investment, it is crucial to establish that it is the best solution for the problem at hand.
To assist in this analysis, it is useful to summarise the types of business problems that lend themselves to a blockchain-based solution. These include: roadblocks in supply chain and trade facilitation, where multiple parties need access to common data while needing to protect their commercial interests; protection of markets that rely on provenance; registration of title and rights; recording permissions for the use of digital assets and creative works; preservation of digital works in perpetuity; and recording transactions where it is important to make those transactions transparent to a network. Blockchain offers neutral territory for sharing information across organisational boundaries. In addition to these business service examples, blockchain technology can facilitate sharing information about trends, voting patterns, data analysis, and record keeping.
Importantly, all of these scenarios assume that the information being shared is not private or confidential. In a world of heightened data and privacy protection, this issue must be borne in mind before advertising information to participants on a public or permissioned network.
Not all problems require a decentralised solution, a cryptocurrency, or smart contracts. Blockchain should be a means to an end, not the other way around. When deciding to require a token, understand clearly why you need a token and what sort of token, because there are plenty of decentralised solutions that do not require one.
Step 3: define a minimum viable product
As is with any new technology that you wish to implement within your organisation, it is wise to start small and develop a minimum viable product (MVP). The best way to learn a new, disruptive technology is to start small and grow from there, and slowly implement it throughout the organisation. In addition, Blockchain differs from any other emerging technology because it often requires organisations to collaborate with industry partners, customers, or even competitors as, only through decentralised collaboration with your stakeholders, do the benefits of Blockchain become truly visible. Whether the product needs to serve a vertical organisational structure or a horizontal supply chain scenario (or both), all participants need to understand why certain information is being shared and to trust that personal, commercial-in-confidence, and industry-sensitive information is secure. Blockchain’s transparency can make all of these functions explicit (as outputs or nullities).
In addition to this, the Blockchain ecosystem is still being developed. At the time of publication, the adoption journey of this new technology has travelled to the same point that the internet had reached in 1994 or 1995. Obviously, it will not take another 20 years for this new ecosystem to develop fully, but many of the technologies required for your decentralised organisation are still in their beta or even alpha stage of testing. This is why developing an MVP with your stakeholders is the best way to get started and ensure that the technology works as it should, before further expansion into your organisation.
Step 4: start hiring new talent
Blockchain technology requires new specialists, including developers, business and technical architects, solidity developers, and cryptographers, but also data scientists, mathematicians, and security specialists. If you also want to do an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) at some stage, you also require ICO specialists, a new type of job that is rapidly becoming more important. Unfortunately, the market for Blockchain developers (a general term to include all of the above) is still very small, simply because the technology is still so new. Hence, it is important for your organisation to start hiring (or partnering with) the right Blockchain developers as soon as possible. Make sure that they have the right industry experience because Blockchain technology does differ per industry.
Of course, you can also turn to one of the many consultancy businesses helping organisations to implement blockchain solutions. These include traditional consultancy firms such as Accenture, IBM, KPMG or Microsoft, or you can turn to new more specialised firms such as Consensys or Chainsmiths.
Step 5: start scaling your efforts
Once you have a shared understanding of Blockchain, developed your hypotheses and an MVP, and lined up new resources, it is time to start expanding your efforts. With luck, your steps into the world of Blockchain result in tangible improvements to your business and your bottom line, which you can then use to start focusing on the impact of Blockchain on your core business. The MVP that you develop will help you create a long-term Blockchain strategy and roadmap, including your intended objectives such as increased efficiencies, reduced risks, better governance, or quality improvements.
When developing your long-term Blockchain strategy, you will start to understand whether it will stay on the periphery of your organisation, only slightly affecting your business, or moves into the mainstream of your business, thereby radically changing your business. Whichever it is, by investing in one or more MVPs, you are prepared for the future ahead, because you have learned the capabilities needed to develop a decentralised business. This, in itself, it very valuable and will help you gain a competitive advantage in an increasingly decentralised society.
10.7 A distributed and decentralised future
The future is distributed and decentralised, and in the coming decade we are returning the web to its decentralised and distributed nature. Today, the three biggest online companies, Google, Facebook, and Amazon, have enormous power, which they apply to increase shareholder return using their customers’ data. As Jonathan Taplin revealed in his 2017 book Move Fast and Break Things, this ‘surveillance capital’ actually increases inequality, does very little for the social good, and can actually be very bad for democracy [364]. It is time for change and to apply emerging technologies to improve our world rather than just increasing shareholders’ returns. Of course, this does not mean that you cannot make money. In fact, the drive to make a good profit offers tremendous opportunities. The few billion people who are currently excluded are a great target market, if done in a fair and honest way. As we wrote in Chapter 6, reducing climate change is a good business opportunity that can make millions while improving our world.
Solving the Wicked Problems discussed in this book requires a collaborative effort of individuals, organisations, and governments. Governments should start applying Blockchain to improve government services, making it easier to do business and comply with the law. Blockchain offers so many opportunities for governments to reduce bureaucracy, remove inefficiencies, and help organisations do what they can do best: run a business and, hopefully, create a better world. On the other hand, organisations can apply Blockchain, as well as other emerging technologies, to develop better products and services, create a better customer experience, and return control of personal data to the customer. The immutability, verifiability, and traceability of data on a blockchain will result in more transparency and security, and bring a new level of privacy, currently lost in many countries. Finally, individuals will be able to directly transact with their peers, across time and space, in a secure manner. It will foster collaboration on a global scale unseen before, enabling individuals to help each other and make money along the way in new and innovative ways. Cryptography and encryption will ensure that individuals can trust each other without knowing each other, opening up new connections and trade across the globe.
Solving the identity crisis will be a catalyst for solving the other Wicked Problems. Offering every citizen a digital and secure self-sovereign identity enables them to interact with other individuals, organisations, and governments in a secure, transparent and private manner. This would require governments to embrace blockchain and other emerging technologies, similar to the Estonian model, and create a digital-first strategy. Governments should no longer focus only on attracting companies with tax benefits, but also on those with efficiency benefits. Governments should remove any bureaucratic inefficiencies for organisations and individuals. After all, a government is a data organisation as well, which happens to enable a free, safe, equal, prosperous, clean environment in their citizens’ best interests. Once self-sovereign identities are commonplace, it will become a lot easier to solve the other Wicked Problems and create a fair, transparent, and secure world for all. Of course, this does not mean that solving the other Wicked Problems can wait until we have a self-sovereign identity system in place. Existing organisations and start-ups, as well as governments and individuals, should embrace Blockchain technologies today to create a better world for tomorrow, by reducing climate change, ending poverty/corruption/fraud/money laundering and improving our democracies and Fair Trade. The technology is here and there is not a moment to lose.