The Times They Are A Changin’ — Towards the Token Economy

Recently, Liam Bell and I presented on our work at a Scottish Blockchain Meetup. I think it is one of the most vibrant and stimulating Meetup groups that I have come across, and, at the end, the room was full of people with great ideas on innovation. Edinburgh, as a host last night, is a truly wonderful city, and a place which is just brimming with smart people who really want to make a difference in our existing thinking.

Liam outlined our collaboration with Blockpass, and with the creation of our new Blockpass ID Lab. In just a few weeks, we already have on-going collaborations in the construction industry, food provenance, and in agriculture.

Our basic pitch for the main talk last night is that the Internet has scaled from a 20th Century viewpoint of the world. It, in no way, can really be fully trusted for anything that happens on it. Why, if a person in your household views shoes on Amazon, does someone else who connects to the same network receive recommendations related to shoes? That is a broken Internet, which is continually tracking our connections, and mining our data. The emails we receive have as much trustworthiness as the telegram systems we used in the 19th Century.

And so, at the start of the presentation, I proposed some basic things: