#65 Blockchain : Trust, transparency and building relationships with Jeremy Williams

"..as with any technology, the question must always be: is the decision to be made good for humanity?"

A fun conversation with @JeremyWilliams around the bridge between technology and human, as we explore the blockchain landscape. We journey through use cases and understanding of how blockchain will change business and the way humans do business in the future. 

The fact that blockchain is immutable brings with it in-built trust, accountability and a lever for more transparent governance and decision making. We explore the idea of blockchain as a lever for culture change, and the potential positive impact on human systems. Leaders must educate themselves, understand the basics of blockchain and look to leverage the technology in their organisation. 

How do companies, particularly hyper growth companies, decide what to focus on ?

How can this technology help to create a more equitable and regenerative model for organisations and indeed society as a whole ?

Jeremy shares his insights and experience from his own career and from supporting clients across the globe in bringing together blockchain technology and emotional intelligence. 

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

-       Blockchain can disrupt the globalised world by decentralising governance and changing structures at both country and company level, moving into a world for the many governed by the many, not the few. 

-       Bitcoin (stemming from a white paper in 2008), a cryptocurrency, is the first successful use case of blockchain technology, which has 3 core elements: it is decentralised, transparent and immutable.

-       There is no lack of trust as data and transaction records are permanent. Other blockchain use cases are for supply chain and financial purposes (e.g. to replace the SWIFT global banking system and send value across the world with no loss of currency). 

-       Blockchain furthermore offers security (hacks are only of centralised exchanges, not the blockchains themselves), advanced cryptography (allows the third party to be removed from a transaction), and accountability.

-       Third parties such as banks must decide where they add value, given that users own the private keys to bitcoin wallets, and are now starting to offer storage for such private keys using advanced technology, thus pivoting their business model.

-       For organisations, this private key technology means a private, efficient and secure blockchain to which users (stakeholders, suppliers, etc.) are invited, fostering trust in the ecosystem.

-       Thus blockchain is a lever for culture change and has a positive impact on human systems as a relationship between the people and the technology - technology will be very different in years to come but not so people.

-       Tech-savvy millennials are moving into positions of power, bringing with them a shift in mindset; some companies focus on emotional intelligence and human aspects, others – hypergrowth companies – on technology, and this is a difficult balance to strike.

-       The complexity of systems is difficult to manage. For example, the metaverse – a great use case for blockchain technology - is yet to be defined but essentially merges the virtual gaming world with reality; we have ‘game-ified’ blockchain technology.

-       Luxury brands are active in this space, creating virtual shops for their clients to experience personal shopping; training/onboarding in the metaverse too will be short, dynamic, engaging and interactive in the form of videos, microlearning, etc.

-       NFTs (non-fungible tokens) will ‘token-ise’ training for the purposes of engagement and loyalty. This is world-changing technology, the next layer of the internet, and a company’s competitive advantage will be how they develop their talent.

-       If we outsource mundane tasks to technology, we can invest time in human tasks, such as meeting people or designing products, add value and remain relevant. AI avatars of ourselves in sync with our real personality and skills will work in the metaverse and earn tokens for us to spend in the real world.

-       In terms of super AI, the question must always be: is the decision to be made good for humanity? We must ensure that the technology benefits the users. It is very powerful technology but subject to politics, which will determine whether it succeeds or not.

-       Leaders must educate themselves, understand the basics of blockchain and look to leverage the technology in their organisation; clients will ask about it and leaders must be able to engage. Sandbox learning for blockchain technology means starting with small changes and looking at the pros and cons of use cases in particular environments.