When “liking” your favorite tweet isn’t enough, you can now send small bitcoin transactions.
Announced Saturday, the beta app Tippin has released a new Chrome Extension available to Google browser users. Over Twitter, app users can send bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network, considered a way to make bitcoin transactions feasible at a large scale for the first time.
With the extension enabled, a little lightning bolt symbol pops up inside every tweet next to the more familiar “like” and “retweet” buttons.
It looks like we heading type 1 civilizations for Bitcoin not for earth. The blockchain industry is very new for mankind and we have not seen this industry exponential growth yet.
Imagine this: a driverless car cruises around in search of passengers.
After dropping someone off, the car uses its profits for a trip to a charging station. Except for it’s initial programming, the car doesn’t need outside help to determine how to carry out its mission.
That’s one “thought experiment” brought to you by former bitcoin contributor Mike Hearn in which he describes how bitcoin could help power leaderless organizations 30-or-so years into the future.
While I’m not a big supporter of cryptocurrency, I am a supporter of utilizing blockchain technology in other areas. For example. logistics. The Linux Foundation announced the creation of the Hyperledger Grid project just for that purpose. However, as they state, this isn’t a software project, but a platform project.
Supply chain is commonly cited as one of the most promising distributed ledger use-cases. Initiatives focused on building supply chain solutions will benefit from shared, reusable tools. Hyperledger Grid seeks to assemble these shared capabilities in order to accelerate the development of ledger-based solutions for all types of cross-industry supply chain scenarios.
Blockchain is featured as a disrupting technology in the Tech Trends 2019 report published by Big Four audit and consulting firm Deloitte on Jan. 16.
According to one article in the report, “[a]dvanced networking is the unsung hero of our digital future,” and blockchain is cited as a part of it. The report — which mentions blockchain 25 times — notes that blockchain is among the technologies the importance of which is growing rapidly and still on its path towards mass adoption.
The report also cites a International Data Corporation’s (IDC) projection from last year that states worldwide spending on blockchain solutions will reach $9.7 billion in 2021. Another IDC’s prediction sees the spending hitting $11.7 billion in 2022.
Blockchain shows major potential to drive positive change across a wide range of industries. Like any disruptive technology, there are ethical considerations that must be identified, discussed, and mitigated as we adopt and apply this technology, so that we can maximize the positive benefits, and minimize the negative side effects.
Own Your Data
For decades we have sought the ability for data subjects to own and control their data. Sadly, with massive proliferation of centralized database silos and the sensitive personal information they contain, we have fallen far short of data subjects having access to, let alone owning or controlling their data. Blockchain has the potential to enable data subjects to access their data, review and amend it, see reports of who else has accessed it, give consent or opt-in / opt-out of data sharing, and even request they be forgotten and their information be deleted.
Monetize Your Data
Blockchain enables cryptocurrency. Think of blockchain as a platform, and a cryptocurrency as a particular application that can run on blockchain, along with many other applications such as those that can enable data subjects to control their data. Users can be rewarded with cryptocurrencies for opting into, or giving consent to collaborate and share their data. For example, a patient may opt into participation in a clinical trial, and in so doing make their data available for research within that clinical trial. This capability has the potential to provide a direct value feedback loop whereby data subjects can monetize their data. This is a huge leap forward from today where data subjects give up their data free, in many cases unaware, and organizations collecting it make highly profitable businesses out of monetizing data with nary a cent going back to the data subject. However, in enabling data subjects to own, control, and monetize their data guardrails must be put in place around this to ensure that data subjects are fully informed of not just monetization opportunities, but also how their data will be used, any risks, and their rights.
Disintermediation and Disruption
Historically collaboration across a group of organizations has required a central trusted intermediary in a “hub and spoke” architecture where the intermediary is at the center and mediates all interactions across the network. One can see examples of this across many industries. In financial services we have banks and banking networks. In healthcare we have clearinghouses and health information exchanges. In most industries we have supply chains where distributors are the hub connecting manufacturers and suppliers with dispensaries and retailers. Unfortunately, many intermediaries have abused their role and introduced excessive costs, delays, and single points of failure where if they are unavailable collaboration across the whole network is halted. To be clear, where physical goods flow, such as in supply chains, centralized hub and spoke architectures will endure. However, when it comes to the flow of digital goods, including any information, cryptocurrencies, crypto-tokens, or otherwise, blockchain has the potential to enable decentralized collaboration across a consortium of organizations in near real-time, and without the added cost, and delay of the intermediary. Since blockchain is decentralized, it eliminates the central single point of failure that makes hub and spoke architectures vulnerable to attacks on the availability of data or systems such as ransomware or DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service). However, with this disintermediation and disruption the common assertion is that many will lose their jobs. Actually, with blockchain there is a different role for an intermediary around training, system integration, support, governance, consensus building across the consortium, and so forth, so there is an opportunity for intermediaries of today to evolve, adapt to blockchain, and even leverage blockchain to their benefit.
Hyper-Efficiency and Job Loss
Today many common types data are maintained redundantly across silos. Think of the last time you changed your phone number or address and had to visit hundreds of websites to update it. Did you visit them all? Probably not (who has time), and so many of the copies of your data are old, inaccurate, etc. This system results in massive collective cost and causes major inefficiencies. Rather than maintain common data in one place, and update it once as needed, and share it near real-time across the consortium of organizations that need it, the cost to maintain common data is multiplied by the number of organizations that have copies and maintain it independently. Further, inconsistencies in this data cause friction and additional cost in the system, and frustration. If your address is not updated mail goes to the wrong place, needs to be forwarded, or maybe you didn’t do forwarding and so you lose it and absorb whatever the impact. In healthcare if records are inconsistent across payers and providers, medical claims can bounce causing delays in payment and so forth. So blockchain having the potential to help solve this sounds good, right? Well, what about the millions of people whose job it is today to maintain redundant copies of information across these organizations and silos. In using blockchain to pave the way for secure, and hyper-efficient maintenance of common, shared data, we may inadvertently disrupt the jobs of millions of people doing mundane, redundant data maintenance today. This is not to say we should not move forward with blockchain and realize its benefits, but we should do so fully aware of the impacts and help those impacted proactively adjust, retrain and move onto more useful, interesting, and higher paying roles.
Environmental Impacts
Public blockchains such as bitcoin span untrusted networks, with untrusted participants, and so must use conservative consensus algorithms such as PoW (Proof of Work) which require mining. To be competitive in mining one must invest in massive amounts of hardware that use massive amounts of electric power. This is a considerable environmental and ethical concern. For public blockchains to be feasible going forward we must find new ways of enabling blockchain consensus in ways that do not require massive amounts of hardware or electric power. Key clarification: this challenge is associated with mining and public blockchains and the consensus algorithms they use, whereas private / consortium blockchains, which represent the vast majority of blockchains used in industries such as healthcare, don’t typically have mining, but rather validation of transactions and blocks which does not require any significant additional hardware or electricity. Therefore, while this is a challenge for public blockchain applications such as bitcoin, it is not an issue for private / consortium blockchains.
Anonymity, Cryptocurrencies, and Crime
Ransomware is enabled by anonymous payment methods such as bitcoin. An attacker can infect your system, encrypt your data, and demand payment in bitcoin, and you can pay them with nary an idea of who attacked you, nor the ability for you or law enforcement to identify them. While cryptocurrencies and crypto-tokens have incredible potential for good, they are in this respect a double edged sword since they also pave the way not only for ransomware attacks, but DDoS, any many other types of crime. On the other hand, blockchain has incredible potential to help mitigate many types of fraud related crime so blockchain and crime is a multi-faceted ethical consideration. For more on this see Blockchain as a tool for anti-fraud.
What other ethical considerations are you seeing with blockchain? I post regularly on blockchain, cybersecurity, privacy, compliance, AI, cloud, and healthcare on LinkedIn and Twitter, and welcome collaboration on these fast evolving fields. Reach out and connect to collaborate.
I love hearing the enthusiasm and joy in the voices of first time home buyers who are going to save money, bond and remodel their house together. Brand new doctors, seasoned lawyers, accountants, project managers, the boldest of GenX and Millennials who grew up swinging VR joystick in lieu of hammers. But they’ve watched Property Brothers and Love It or List and have the best database of YouTube videos for home remodeling in their entire subdivision or building. They even park in the “Pro” section at Home Depot and have their very own monogrammed Leatherman construction gloves.
You can remodel your own home. Even “just” your kitchen or “just” your bathroom. You can read and have all the resources at your disposal. But don’t. Don’t even fucking think about it. Remember how you tried to cook Thanksgiving dinner last year and ended up burning up your kitchen, which is why you need to replace it? Those were simple enough directions too, right?
But what does this have to do with blockchain and more importantly your business?
Glad you asked. Well, your business is like your house. Blockchain is like a remodel. You can do it yourself. You’re after all a pro at your business. But your business isn’t blockchain. Your business is shipping, consulting, farming, logistics, banking, money exchange, insurance, lending, maybe even selling pizzas. Your business is a business. Your business isn’t a way of doing business or a business tool like blockchain. Your business is a way of generating you income to provide for your family, workers, community, financial security and future. It ain’t a way to decentralize any of those, unless you want to find out what a “decentralized” retirement looks like. (Hint, think working poor at 75 years old. #GigEconomy).
So! Before you decided to attempt to blockchain your business, ask yourself, “Could I remodel my house?” 99.99% of the time the answer is “Fucking, hell, no!” You should no more attempt to “blockchain” your business than you should remodel your house. So what do you do?
Hire a professional
Can’t afford one? Then you’re not ready to remodel your house or “blockchain” your business.
By the way, do you even know what the fuck “blockchaining your business” even is? I’m like an expert in this industry and I don’t recommend 99% of businesses “blockchain” any part of their business. Cause did you know you can “blockchain” parts of your business operations, functions and processes and not the entire business? I’ll tell you a secret, blockchain is just a tool you use to do your business. It ain’t a business itself, a panacea for customer acquisitions or guarantee of increased sales or revenue. It’s like a hammer that’s shiny and brand new, but in your hands it’s more likely to tear giant holes in your business’ model, customer base and revenue streams.
So, like you would a plumber, carpenter or WiFi guy, before you go to “blockchain your business” hire a professional. Cause the funny part is once (if) you blockchain your business, then you’ve got to run your business. Remember, blockchain isn’t your business. Your business is. Don’t allow the hype of DIY tech nerds get you wild with excitement leaving you swinging a proverbial sledge hammer through your internal operations and revenue streams.
Hire a professional. And much like building a house, don’t start by hiring a painter to lay the foundation. Hire a General Contractor to guide you through the process. And whatever you do, do not let the plumber and electricians (coders and programmers) charge you by the hour. As then, it’ll take three times as long, cost 10 times as much and your odds of being electrocuted when you drop a deuce are high.
Who is a “Blockchain General Contractor”? Axes and Eggs of course.
Blockchain plumbers, carpenters, electricians, painters, engineers and designers: Chainhaus — they’re your one stop shop. But you can always go to the Home Depot of Blockchain Deloitte Ireland.
Fly by night, Tim the Tool man, unpermitted, lien inclined, blockchain enthusiast.… On the advice of our legal counsel (www.cogentlaw.co) I won’t name those decentralized con artist. But they probably showed up to give you an estimate driving a Lamborghini and offered you custom views of the moon. So you know who they are.
Conclusion
Stick to your business. It’ll ultimately make you more money.
Oh, and if you need a real Construction General Contractor, visit www.mattbeth.com
My name is Samson. I’m an Adjunct Professor at Univ of New Hampshire School of Law, human and an anthropologist at Axes and Eggs, a Washington, DC based Think Tank and digital advisor. If you like what you read, share it! If you disagree, share what you know or how you feel in the comment section below. Feel free to hit me up on Twitter or Instagram @HustleFundBaby or follow me onLinkedIn. Finally, I would say thoughts are my own but I probably stole them from a woman.
The problems with cryptocurrencies and their energy usage are well-known. However, Ethereum is planning to address the issue. They’re planning on doing a 99% decrease in the amount of energy used in obtaining new coins.
It would be good for other cryptocurrencies to take this problem just as seriously.
The cryptocurrency is going on an energy diet to compete with more efficient blockchains.
