Blockchain Revolution

6. THE BLOCKCHAIN IS A JOB KILLER
At the 2015 World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, a panel of
technology executives from Microsoft, Facebook, and Vodaphone discussed the
impact of technology on jobs. All agreed that, although technological innovations
may disrupt labor markets temporarily, overall they generate new and incrementally
more jobs. “Why should this time be any different?” said Eric Schmidt, executive
chair of Google.
The displacement of workers through automation is nothing new. Consider the
Internet’s impact on travel agents and music retailers. Uber and Airbnb have created
income for drivers with extra time and home owners with spare rooms, but neither
provides health insurance or other employee benefits, and both are displacing better-
paid jobs in the travel and hospitality industries.
The blockchain is an extraordinary platform for radical automation, where
computer code rather than humans do the work, managing assets and people. What
happens when autonomous vehicles replace Uber drivers? Or digital currencies
obviate Western Union’s five hundred thousand points of sale around the world.
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Or
when a shared blockchain platform for financial services eliminates tens of thousands
of accounting and IT systems management jobs? While there will be many new
business and employment opportunities created through the IoT, will it drive further
unemployment, especially in the relatively unskilled market for relatively routine
tasks?
In the developing world, the blockchain and cryptocurrencies could enable
entrepreneurs to raise capital, protect assets and intellectual property, and create jobs
even in the poorest communities. Hundreds of millions could become
microshareholders in new corporations and participate in economic exchange. The
technology could radically improve the delivery and deployment of aid, increase
government transparency, reduce corruption, and set the conditions for good
government—a precondition for jobs in many parts of the world.
Even in the developed world the effects are not determinable. A global platform
that drops transaction costs, in particular the costs of establishing trusted commerce

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and wealth creation, could result in more participants.
Even if this technology enables us to do more with fewer human resources, we
still have no case to fear, delay, or halt its march. Ultimately, what matters is not
whether new capabilities exist but the extent to which societies turn these into social
benefit. If machines are creating so much wealth, then maybe it’s time for a new
social contract that redefines human work and how much time we should all spend
making a living.