Blockchain Revolution

THE TRUST PROTOCOL AND YOU
Will the law of paradigms kick into effect—that leaders of the old have the greatest
difficulty embracing the new? Consider the leaders who endorsed Don’s 1994 book
The Digital Economy: the CEOs of Nortel Networks, MCI, Nynex, Ameritech, and
GE Information Services, all of which are gone. At least he didn’t include the CEOs
from Kodak, Borders, Blockbuster, or Circuit City. (Another cautionary note for the
kind jacket endorsers of Blockchain Revolution.)
Why didn’t Rupert Murdoch create The Huffington Post? Why didn’t AT&T
launch Skype, or Visa create PayPal? CNN could have built Twitter, as it is all about
the sound bite, no? GM or Hertz could have launched Uber, and Marriott, Airbnb.
Gannett could have created Craigslist or Kijiji. eBay would have been a natural play
for the Yellow Pages. Microsoft had the resources to create Google or any number of
business models based on the Internet rather than the personal computer. Why didn’t
NBC invent YouTube? Sony could have preempted Apple’s iTunes. Where was
Kodak when it was time for Instagram or Pinterest to be invented? What if People or
Newsweek had come up with BuzzFeed or Mashable?
As we wrote at the beginning of this tome, “It appears that once again the
technological genie has been unleashed from its bottle . . . now at our service for
another kick at the can—to transform the economic power grid and the old order of
human affairs. If we will it.” Like the first generation of the Internet, the Blockchain
Revolution promises to upend business models and transform industries. But that is
just the start. Blockchain technology is pushing us inexorably into a new era,
predicated on openness, merit, decentralization, and global participation.
We expect a period of volatility, speculation, and misuse. We also expect a strong
and steady barreling forward, a plowing aside of the sacred cows on the tracks. No
one knows yet what impact this train will have on financial services. Is Ben Lawsky

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right—that the industry could be unrecognizable in five to ten years? Tim Draper said,
“Bitcoin is to the dollar as the Internet is to paper.”
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Could it be that blockchain’s
most ardent supporters are actually underestimating the long-term potential here? Will
the blockchain be the biggest boon to industry efficiency and value since the invention
of double-entry accounting or the joint-stock corporation? Hernando de Soto said
blockchain holds the potential to bring five billion people into the global economy,
change the relationship between the state and citizens (for the better), and become a
powerful new platform for global prosperity and a guarantor of individual rights. To
him, “the whole idea of peace through law, the whole idea of one family humankind is
that we reach agreement on common standards. We should consider how the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights could be better served with blockchain.”
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How can we achieve this better future?
Most of the people leading the revolution are still unknowns, except for veterans
like Netscape’s progenitor Marc Andreessen. You’ve likely never heard of most of the
people quoted in this book. Then again, who’d heard of Iranian immigrant Pierre
Omidyar or Wall Street programmer Jeff Bezos in 1994? Much depends on how the
leaders of the industry get on board. Is a blockchain alternative to Facebook or Twitter
really achievable or will the incumbents respond by addressing user concerns about
data ownership and privacy? Doesn’t matter. Consumers win either way. Will Visa
wither or will it change its business model to embrace the power of blockchain? How
will Apple respond to an artist-centered music industry? What will tin-pot dictators
think about a decentralized Internet that they can’t turn off or control? Can the
blockchain make technology accessible to the world’s two billion unbanked people?
The failure rate of start-ups is high, and so we expect a good number of our case
studies to fall by the wayside, not because blockchain technology is a bad idea, but
because—for each one of our examples—there are many competing start-ups. All of
them can’t survive. We believe those that follow Satoshi’s principles have a better
shot than those that don’t.
These are exciting and perilous times. As a business leader, use Blockchain
Revolution as your playbook, sure, but realize also that the rules of the game
themselves are changing. Think about your business, your industry, and your job:
How will I be affected and what can be done? Do not fall into the trap brought about
by many paradigm shifts throughout history. Today’s leaders cannot afford to be
tomorrow’s losers. Too much is at stake and we need your help. Please join us.

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