
Communicating the future
The future is here, and yet … not quite.
Blockchain APAC 2018 is an enterprise level new technology talk-fest. The conference pulled together many of the conversations which have been happening around cryptography, cryptoeconomics, and blockchain, without the distraction of cryptocurrencies.
Blockchain APAC, the brainchild of Steve Vallas brought together a diverse group of people who were entering the conversation from an equally diverse set of doors.
After all, this is what decentralisation is all about. Diversity — of ideas, of people and of outcomes. And inclusiveness, of ideas, people and outcomes.
There is no doubt there is agreement across private, government and social enterprises — blockchain is here and it’s here to stay.
Five things Blockchain APAC 2018 highlighted:
1. The future is for everyone (provided they meet the MVP’s of life).
First things first — technology only works for people who have technology. How do those people who have no access get the benefits of technology?
The verification of documents only works if you have documents to verify. How do we verify people who are undocumented?
And financial freedom is only available to the percentage of the global population who have bank accounts. Over 2 billion people don’t have bank accounts, so how do they access financial freedom? (More stats here)
Blockchain solves problems humans have been grappling with in recent decades; where does our food come from, who makes our clothes, who gets to see what data, and what can they do with it — but only for the people who have the ability to be ‘on the chain’.
2. It’s Day 0; the space is so new it’s wide open*
For the first time in history, a major systemic disruption is truly open to women. Previous revolutions excluded women. Education, religion, industry and the Internet V1 were driven by men — even when women were instrumental in how things were realised (think Nuns, teachers and Ada Lovelace).
But this revolution? It’s open and women are stepping into key roles where fundamental decisions are being made about how our future might look, what aspects need to be considered and why.
Of course decentralised networks are feminine by default. They are collaborative, inclusive, and considered.
*’wide open’ also applies to cultural, religious and any other variation of what it means to be human — it’s your space too — take a seat.
3. Blockchain is not an agile fail fast pivoting kind of place
The societal and personal consequences of decisions being made now will be permanent. There is no roll back, no re-release, no version two.
To work in the blockchain space is to slow down. There is emphasis on a kind of boolean consequence — if this, then what happens — what are the scenarios, how do we solve all the problems? Who’s included, who’s excluded? How do we make it fairer, safer? How do we navigate the future for the benefit of everyone on the planet?
The foundational rules around smart contracts and verification protocols have to be considered from as many diverse angles as possible. The applications have to work with humans — not against them or in spite of them. So time has to be taken to ask a range of questions and find the right answers.
“The truth is collective, not subjective.” Katherine Noall — Sphere Identity.
4. UX is the new frontier
User interface is the new challenge for blockchain developments.
“How will people use these new dapps and decentralised systems?”
The interface of projects being imagined now is what will bring mass adoption to the space and allow projects to succeed.
Bitcoin, the longest running and best use case for blockchain was slow to start because it was really difficult to ‘buy a bitcoin’.
Where did you go, how did you use the site when you found it, how did you safely keep your bitcoin, and what did you do with it when you finally jumped all those hurdles and bought your first bitcoin?. But over the last 3 years, user friendly exchanges were built (thank you Human Greed for driving that forward) prices rose, and interest was garnered.
But the focus on UX is still to be realised as the industry is weighted heavily towards the programmers who are working to make things that work.
“If it’s difficult for people to use, they won’t use it.” Every UX designer worth their salt.
Understanding how people use technology will become a key driver in the uptake (or not) of blockchain projects.
5. We need new words
One of the greatest joys when geeking out to a new technology is navigating the new language which emerges as a community grows. Blockchain challenges the vernacular of everyone from coders and developers, designers, UX, businesses, governments and educators. How do you describe a ‘decentralised network’ to an organisation, how do you teach code to the next generation of programmers, how do take an idea to market so the people it is designed for understand ‘what’s in it for them’? What does it take to change the mindset of an entire population from a centralised mentality to a decentralised system of sharing information and transacting?
We need new metaphors, and analogies to help people understand what blockchain is, how it can be used and when a good old fashioned database might be a better option. Programmers will have to adjust to coding for a decentralised network and educators will have to update the material they are teaching the next generation of coders, system designers and UX designers.
A new language set will develop as people who understand both the technology, it’s capabilities and the end users learn what works and what doesn’t. Once upon a time we had to explain what the ‘internet’ was, the format of an email address and everyone said w w w at the beginning of a web address (no, really, you can stop it now). People will stop being (unnecessarily) concerned about what it is and, provided it ‘works’ simply use it as it was designed to be used.
The other important factor highlighted at the conference is that there are people at all levels of business, government, enterprise and education working to resolve the issues moving to a new technology because they already understand the long term benefit; economically, socially and culturally.
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Further reading / listening
Decentpod — Nyla Rogers
Mama Hope
Satoshi is Female (you too can wear the t-shirt)
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