Blockchain and the Distributed Information System Ecosystem
Modern internet technology can be described in terms of a distributed information system. By definition, “Information systems are combinations of hardware, software, and telecommunications networks that people build and use to collect, create, and distribute useful data, typically in organizational settings.”
Throughout history, we have observed miniature adoption cycles within each component of IS. On a macro level, we can describe the cascading IS waterfall to be broken down between hardware, software, data, procedures, and people. Through each of the macro cycles, a single dominant technology or organization has remained as the figure head to spear each change. Where blockchain falls is hard to say. With a strong bit of intuition, I confidently argue that it lies in the transition between procedures and people.
The Adoption Cycle

Anyone who works with technology has heard of some form of the Rogers Bell Curve. Thinking back to the first smartphones, there were plenty of devices to market before Apple came out with the iPhone. Shivayogi Kumbar describes this launch point as The Chasm on the curve, when one high quality product pushes consumers beyond the elbow of the curve.
Blockchain is waiting for The Chasm. Bitcoin has been around as long as the iPhone. It wasn’t until last year’s bubble and burst that the incentive to innovate became apparent for the private sector. Some would argue that Ethereum is The Chasm, but there are plenty of downfalls to Ethereum as well. A fundamental concept of monetary theory is that money must be a divisible medium of exchange, that can operate as a vehicle to transfer wealth into the future. Ethereum is not only a tool to build smart contracts on top of, but also an asset which can be described as an immutable medium of exchange. A coin that is traded as a speculative currency, makes it difficult to satisfy the requirement of a confident asset for mass adoption. After the jump over the chasm, we should expect rising stability as the adoption of cryptocurrencies increases past it’s critical point of scale.
The global view on blockchain is divided into two sects. As a decentralized way to liberate humanity’s dependence on the banking system, and a technology that can provide increased security and verification for the future of the web. The former is already evident, looking at hiring trends for all major banks. A chasm will be the technology that provides adequate separation of church and state, such that a confidence exists in blockchain adoption for organizations, and stability as an asset for consumers. In a future article, I will discuss the implications this has on real estate prices in major financial centers, and why investors should put a hold on buying properties in NYC until after mass adoption.
The Information System Ecosystem

An information system is the collective arrangement of how people and technology interact symbiotically. Taking a look at the five-component framework, let’s dive down into how consumer banking has evolved within it.
In September of 1969, the first ATM was introduced to the United States at Chemical Bank in Rockville, NY. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that this technology became adopted by the masses. This wasn’t the first ATM, but it took 15–20 years for this brand-new technology to become widespread. It didn’t eliminate bank tellers, but it sure reduced our dependency on them. When it comes to blockchain, banks will always exist. It is our dependencies on them that will fade.
In 1983, as personal computers became mainstream, software started to develop. Personal budgeting used to be a manual process until Quicken, the predecessor to QuickBooks came around. Not only did personal finances become easier, but business transactions as well. This spurred the AIS revolution, bringing the first ledgers to the digital world. Now with blockchain, these ledgers are public and can’t be cooked like in the Enron Scandal.
Data is a blur because it is apparent and everywhere; from the first ATM, to mobile phones today. In the scope of this argument, we will consider data the point where online banking became widespread. This did not happen until the dot-com boom. Every major institution had some form of online banking, but this is the point where branchless financial institutions emerged. It is also the point where we saw PayPal appear, which to this day, has produced the brightest minds in tech.
When smartphones became widespread in the 2010s, mobile banking followed. ATMs started to become obsolete. When I pay a friend, it can go mobile-to-mobile, with reduced transaction fees. That is another positive implication of the trend, is that financial transactions fall lower and lower as less people take a cut of your money for verifying and processing exchange. To put this in perspective, a $99 million transfer would cost ~$1 million with traditional banking solutions, taking hours if not days to complete. With Litecoin, this same transaction would cost ~$0.40.
Today we are seeing the evolution between procedures and people occur with Blockchain. Transaction fees are approaching zero, as verification occurs via machine on the public leger. As people are cut out of the equation, transaction fees fall with it. As less hands are involved in the banking system, less jobs are required in it. People with expertise in distributed ledger technologies will reign, as we approach singularity in the next 30 years. Digital banking has already reached the late majority stage, where China is already on a mobile centric financial system. The Chasm in the next 10–20 years will push for economic activity to become independent of human intervention. An efficient, fully-optimized free market is inevitable, where a financial ecosystem will solely exist to benefit the participants.
This future entails not only a system of exchange between people, but between machines as well. With the advancement of AI and machine learning across disciplines, integration of technology into more components of society will lead to more autonomy amongst machines. As this progresses, a new economy will emerge where a car could hypothetically lend your toaster money. Blockchain is a decentralized technology. Amazon AWS has already pioneered cloud technology to run closely on the same principal, on a distributed network. A major difference is that there still are centralized components to AWS servers, where blockchain will be able to reduce our dependencies on economic agents such as Amazon, the same way ATMs reduced our need for bank branches. As decentralization occurs, information asymmetry will fall as information silos are broken down. As Ray Kurzweil puts it, singularity is inevitable. The question remains whether or not you want to remain ahead of the curve when it comes.
Will Seggos is the Co-founder of The Chain Collective, a NYC based community for Blockchain enthusiasts and apparel company. Follow us on Instagram @chaincollective
