Is Crypto a Fad or a Phenomenon?
Colin Iles ????????????????????
Curating Thought Leadership for CEOs Looking to Make a Difference | Innovation Catalyst | Matchmaker | Executive Coaching | Visioning Strategist | Strategy Facilitation | Recovering Banker | Once a CA
Below is my first contribution to this weekends Mail and Guardian. Comments and feedback are welcome.
For years, there’s been a binary debate around cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.
For the sceptics, they’re a fad, representing nothing more than technological solutions in search of a problem.
For the evangelists, this is an unstoppable train that represents an opportunity to turn the traditional financial system on its head by creating a more equitable playing field, which transfers power from the few to the many.
I believe the evangelists are right … with one extremely important caveat.
Let’s start with QR Codes
Before exploring the likely futures of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-enabled services, let’s first consider the analogous example of QR codes.
Most of you have, by now, probably used Zapper, Snapscan or Masterpass. I, like hundreds of thousands of other South Africans, use at least one of these services many times every week.
We collectively do this for three reasons.
Firstly, they offer us some sort of utility, which in this case boils down to providing a mechanism to pay for our goods and services, without having to touch a point of sale device.
Secondly
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By the way....a quick reminder that I'll be interviewing Prof. Monica Singer on Tuesday 20th April at 11:30 CAT to learn more about the future of crypto and I hope you'll be able to join?
(Monica Singer was the first CEO of South Africa’s Central Securities Depository (CSD), Strate (Pty) Ltd which she set up in 1998. In August 2017 Monica resigned as the CEO of Strate and all related board positions so she could concentrate on bringing blockchain technology to all relevant industries. She is currently the South Africa Lead for Consensys, a leading Blockchain software house, founded by Joseph Lubin, who was a co-founder of Etherium.)
CTO: Capitec Bank | 7 x AWS Certified
3 年A v good read and not the way i think of crypto (or anything). Its foreign to me that trust can be so symptomatic and not based on knowledge. The issue with symptomatic trust is that its fragile. When something goes wrong this trust will vanish and trying to explain the fault, to an audience that never understood to system in the first place is non trivial... That said my knowledge of the fractional reserve model is a little dusty - so maybe i am also guilty of misplaced trust ??
Highly experienced Project and Programme Manager with over 23 years of expertise in delivering complex projects across various sectors, including IT, Finance, Mining, and Government.
3 年Great read!
Partnering with bold business leaders in understanding the future, framing ambitious goals and creating game changing new businesses. CONNECT if this sounds interesting!
3 年Well argued Colin. Good read.
Engineering Leader | Software Architect / Developer | Data / ML Engineer | (AWS x 9)
3 年Enjoyed the read Colin Iles. It's not very often you read a balanced article in this space.
Head of Financial Risk Management at Genesis Analytics
3 年A very interesting read Colin Iles!