Blockchain: Trust Companies: Every Company Is at Risk of Being Disrupted by a Trusted Version of Itself

by Richie Etwaru

Richie covers the so what of blockchain as opposed to the crowded area of the what of blockchain. Every large paradigm in the history of the human species thus far narrowed or completely closed some large gap; blockchain will narrow or completely close a large gap as well. The printing press closed the knowledge gap, the steam engine closed the power gap, and the Internet is closing the distance gap. Blockchain stands to close the exponentially expanding trust gap. The exponentially expanding trust gap we live in today is not immediately apparent, the first half of the book covers the often ignored history of cooperation, the evolution of the need for control, the transformation of the creation and coordination of value, and the state of markets and modern commerce today decorated with fraud. In the journey the reader comes to a self-realization that a trust gap is vivid and apparent in commerce, and we have become anesthetized to a world where we carry the burden to always trust but verify almost every transaction with expensive, cumbersome and often inconveniencing intermediaries. Today, we the human species start every company or transaction with the automatic subliminal assumption that counterparties cannot be trusted. And we do this without realizing, or at a minimum sometimes asking if it has to be this way. In the second half of the book, Richie re-positions blockchain from what it is today; a paradigm that is looking for a problem, into a timely and much needed inevitable paradigm of distributed and immutable ledgers that would solve a problem that is exponentially expanding; the trust gap which the reader would have just awoken to. He paints a maturity journey for the evolution to trusted commerce driven by blockchain as finance, identity, reputation, inventory, market, agreement, and cooperate data sets sequentially evolve through blockchain first becoming trusted data sets, then becoming data sets that enable transparent consensus at scale, and eventually becoming candidate data sets for smart contracts to transact on autonomously. If you are starting a company, running one, or trying to save one from its Kodak Moment , this book is a sobering reminder that every company is at risk of being disrupted by a trusted version of itself. The use cases and examples discussed are deep, introspective, and an immersion in what commerce would look like if we collectively brought the blockchain paradigm to life as the trust machine for commerce that it could be. Blockchain, mankind's first opportunity for trusted commerce at global and sustainable scale.

204 pages, Hardcover

Published July 17, 2017

Reviews

[Neil H · Rating 2 out of 5]

First things first. Start from chapter 10. The prior chapters are just narratives on commerce and evolving technology and fast facts which we do not need to get into or which we already know if you are living and breathing. The issue with contracts and honoring them is that a contract is a review of items listed as conditions to be fulfilled. There will be multiple iterations for which presumably the BC tech will be good at. But like real estate transactions which the author cites as a possible compliment to BC is that in the case of renovation work, not all are updated to reflect changes. It has to come from an essentialized platform where every transaction done in the real world is faithfully rendered in the BC unit/contract which is an issue in itself. As the author puts forth an origin and its touchpoints, who determines the touchpoints; buyer or seller? An "Uber, Airbnb" replacement i would think still needs a first construct to provide the necessary conditions from incipient idea to scale. What's to stop it from achieving monopoly by withholding necessary algorithm and trade information if the BC tech is based on confidentiality. Another hiccup I see is that contracts or conditions are straightforward if A=B=C but the context, changing situations and interpretations are all liable to human construct and flavor. How then can we reconcile this BC tech(straightforward) and our whims (subject to caprice, cultural, language, situational differences)? I've read an article about even if the BC is decentralized as it's winning charm seems to be, what happens if the majority key participants which could override any change or "suspicious activity" within its unit blocks not be subject to manipulation? Or its bedrock; algorithms which are served to bias one participant over the other.

I have just started reading on BC tech, apparently its the new darling of trust and intermediary efficiency and I would need to learn more. But it seems to be a tool that has limited means.

[Brad Boyson]

Some very well explained concepts by an author with a passion. A valuable read, albeit at times the writing / content feels a bit rushed (thin).