Cryptos crashed, long live the blockchain

The crypto crash last winter, will hopefully remembered as a blessing in disguise. When the hype is over and the dust has settled, its time to look at the potential of the blockchain, which might be the most important innovation that came out the 2008-2018 crises.  This crisis could be labeled as an integrity, transparency and trust crises. This is exactly what the blockchain promises to deliver.

What the blockchain revolution has in store is a trust protocol which is based on four principles:

• Honesty; establishing trusting relationships among business partners, customers, employees requires truthful communication in all aspects
• Consideration; a genuine respect for the other parties interests and a demonstration of goodwill to one another.
• Accountability;  the absense of ambiguity in the commitments made and refraining from playing the blame game when things turn sour
• Transparency; provided by operating with "open books" without concealing important information, excluding of course propriety company information.

From a business perspective the blockchain will enable specialist companies to work together in creating value with a high degree of flexibility and speed and lower transaction costs. This assumes an advantage over large corporations which benefited historically from low transaction costs through organizing by hierarchy .

The image above depicts the opportunities by sector. The public sector stands out in terms of both impact and feasibility.  This stems from the fact that in a democracy e.g. integrity, identity, privacy, transparency and security are all at stake in securing a properly functioning government with a high degree of trust with the public.
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A nice example is a civilian pass provided by local governments to citizens. This pass is distributed for the usage of public services  provided by third parties.  Transactions are registered through a QR-code and payments instantly handled upon delivery of service. This limits the administrative burden and prevents potential fraud.
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Another area with great potential is the implementation of a smart contract. This type of contract implemented on a blockchain ensures the execution of the contract with a predefined set of business rules. In addition to the underlying financial transaction, reputation and accountability can be managed between agents. These can be organizations as well as individuals. The provided transparency is building trust required for creating sustainable economic relationships.

Enabling new operating models which reduce cost by fewer administrative tasks and the elimination of intermediaries will have a positive impact on the operating capital needed. At the same time boosting revenue and productivity, the blockchain might be disruptive after all.