Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World

by Don Tapscott

In the developing world, the digital revolution has done little to clear the entrepreneurial path of red tape and corruption. Where it costs only 3.4 percent of per-capita income to start a business in OECD countries, it costs 31.4 percent in Latin America and a shocking 56.2 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. In Brazil, an entrepreneur has to wait almost 103 days to incorporate his company versus 4 days in the United States and half a day in New Zealand.13 Exasperated by government bloat and inefficiency, many would-be developing-world entrepreneurs instead choose to operate in the so-called informal economy. “There are a bunch of things taken for granted in the West. Property records are fine-tuned, for example. In the Global South, entrepreneurs would rather the government not know they exist. We need to make identity a profitable proposition,” said Hernando de Soto. For now, staying in the shadows frees these entrepreneurs from meddlesome and corrupt officials, but it also profoundly limits their ability to grow their business, limits rights, and makes “dead capital” of money that could otherwise be deployed more efficiently.14 Moreover, even for those who operate their businesses in the open, laws of many countries do not provide for limited liability. If your business fails, you’re personally on the hook for all liabilities. If you bounce a business check in many Arab countries, you go straight to jail—“do not pass go” or any other institutions of due process on the way.15