We are smack in the middle of the fourth Industrial revolution and BlockChain is one touted to be one of the great changes in how businesses will work. “arguably”, I should have added “arguably” into that last sentence.
All the new age technologies with non made up words (this is important) like Big data Analytics, RPA, IoT etc are a logical extension of what is already there. Big data will find genesis in BI/DW, RPA will be an offspring of process automation and so on.
The off springs find their rightful place in enabling business almost seamlessly. The fun of being in the family guild is that they get to do what they have been seeing their mom and pop do; but, it’s just that they are doing it on the internet, that their scope of play is much larger, The protocol layer is much larger, the integration more extensive, the use cases are thus more evolved and so is the cash register.
The Downside of being in your parents line of work is that not only you meet the same benefactors of the ecosystem but also the same thugs who know how to exploit them and the straight out criminals who will steal your mother’s pearls.
Enough has been said about how big data analytics has made a product out of you, it’s just a sweet way of telling you that you are being pimped cheap. And hey when your data gets stolen and or that cutesy IoT device you bought is sending some information to a person who did not even have dignity to send you an “I agree” contract you would have never read anyway- well that’s just criminal.
With that context enter Block chain, Just like Batman an inordinately muscular, found his calling in Asia and physically invulnerable poster child of the digital age. Like every other marvel hero our blockChain is an orphan it does not have a true genesis in any of the digital stack except for one pirate criminal called bittorrent. So lets have it, who are the Jokers for this Batman?- dogecoin comes to mind the online store where one could buy drugs for bitcoin (don’t bother clicking- they have been busted). Sure crypto currency was easy to move around and people found exciting ways to buy and sell illegal merchandise and evade the regulatory middlemen. But they were caught. Why ? because blockChain stupid!! It records each transaction on an immutable block, an interesting tool for the Legal agencies involved because now they could tie up the names and the dates of all the transaction on a PUBLIC block chain. But hey that’s not it, what about SilkRoad where people were just laundering their money, caught each and every one of them you say? Because of the blocks and the data recorded? especially when they were trying to cash out you say? You do have point.
Criminals have not really figured this one out.
So what next- how does our Batman evolve if there is no real threat to him, who does he fight? I mean he is Batman. how does he make his bread. Will it be Bruce Wayne or will it be Batman.
Lets take Mr Wayne for now - let’s say he convinces
Businesses to implement their supply chains on Block Chain,
Artists to sell their music for Ether and Bitcoin and collect music royalty directly from the consumer
The real estate companies sell partial ownership for ether and or Bitcoins using smart contracts
The Will
Is the industry ready for it ? is the ecosystem ready to be this transparent? Are the agents and middlemen ready to be transparent on their transaction fees? Will you really trust all sidechains that are really circles within circles? What about private chains that join up to your chain with some Polkadot type of application?
The ABILITY
Lets assume each and every one is ready to take the plunge.
Is the business process ready?
Can the use cases be that easily be automated to send their data to the Block chain?
Can we get all the consortium partners systems to be compatible and send transaction records on the block chain?
Will the government be able to clean the records to enable smart contracts?
Will the tax, legalese give enough teeth to smart contracts?
Walls too high for Mr Wayne to jump as of today if you ask me. So what should the Bat do?
Save Gotham city offcourse!! If Wayne enterprises is not the business to be. The Bat needs to offer protection to the children of the new business, the prodigies who roam the streets with their flashy gold chains and feeble muscles. The big data analytics, the IoT, The whole digital stack has been proved venerable again and again by hackers and rouge governments and has hurt the mass populace that prostitute themselves every second.
The Bat needs to protect this meek, by providing a fabric like the rapidly evolving Unix, Ethereum, IBM, Microsoft based platforms for these businesses to feel safe, transact and usher in the Industry 4.0 on a clear glass plate.
