David Faustino, Managing Director of Nexllence
In the last 150 years the world has changed radically with some technologies: aviation, telephone, radio, television, etc. We did not waste a minute thinking about the skepticism of those who preceded us: they would surely say that it would not work, many did not understand the concepts, some would say that it was a “speculative bubble” because there would be no consumers for this technology. Today we know that these were decisive moments for humanity.
Today we are in one of those transformational moments, although many of us are not realizing it. And it is understandable: we went through a deep crisis in the financial system, sovereign debt crisis in some countries, and when we were again in a moment of prosperity, we entered a pandemic of historical dimensions.
But as we faced our day-to-day dealing with these challenges, globalization accelerated strongly, and a number of people, companies and governments accumulated wealth and power to an unusual dimension in human history, based on unprecedented technology development. It is these people, companies and technologies that will play an unprecedented role in our lives and generations to come, and will put enormous challenges on governments and institutions that have held real power to this day, and who want to continue to maintain control.
One of the most disruptive technologies is surely blockchain. The “only” current real and practical application of blockchain is cryptocurrency, which has the historical particularity of no one knowing the true entity of its creator(s), hidden under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
From 2009 (i.e., recent global financial crisis) to today – just 15 years – bitcoin has become the 8th most valuable asset in the world, just behind gold (read “all mined gold in the entire history of mankind”), silver, the four tech giants and an oil company.
Weekly news are published from large companies that have come to accept cryptocurrencies in their business: Tesla, Ebay, JP Morgan are just a few. There are companies paying part of their salaries in cryptocurrencies to their employees. There are leaseagreements to be made in cryptocurrency.
The issue is too complex to be debated here. But I believe something similar happened with the adoption of television: while some did not believe that a box could produce images of people, already the most visionary were producing them and thinking of business models to exploit this technology.
This is a huge challenge for the world, in particular for governments (which may/will lose a basic mechanism in controlling the economy and the country) and for banks (which may/will have a totally new, absolutely determined and innovative competition, and with a financial power and enormous scale).
What is a challenge for the governments and banks of the world is certainly a huge challenge for all of us. But the procession still goes in the churche:
1. The governments are arriving late to this arena, but taking certain steps (China has launched a pilot of the digital yuan, the U.S. government is working with mit in this area, etc.);
2. ETechnology companies (the most notable is Facebook) have plans to launch their cryptocurrencies: Facebook has postponed the launch of its cryptocurrency “pound” due to government pressures, but will hardly give up. As Facebook has 2.6 billion users (compared to 800 million inhabitants of the United States and The European Union), the “pound” has a huge potential impact worldwide;
3. Other smaller companies are using blockchain to develop technology with other applications (such as 100% anonymous internet browsing), using the current blobckchain application (cryptocurrency) to fund their research.
It’s a new world that’s coming up every day. Like the days of the adoption of television and the phone, in which the big stores of New York and London put the first televisions in the storefront. But the impact on our lives will be much greater, and much faster, than the human species has ever experienced. No physical or cultural boundaries. Huge.
We can ignore, deny its existence, call it a “speculative bubble” or look at the topic with curiosity, looking for the opportunity for us and our companies.
Who better understands the change of technology, will benefit the most from the change of the world. It is common sense that it is the changes that provoke opportunities. Change has arrived. I hope that you will do a good investigation and have good discussions on this subject.
Source: Link to Leaders
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