A day in the life of a blockchain-enabled future
Let’s go on a journey through a world set 10 years in the future. One where blockchain and privacy went hand-in-hand and another without privacy.
With privacy
It’s been just over ten years since the global Covid-19 pandemic, and you’ve woken up in your hotel room in Singapore. You reach for your phone to check for messages. Your friend Leyla has sent you a message about the virtual reality gig you attended last night. Using your VR headset, you were there up close with the Rolling Stones as they performed Jumpin’ Jack Flash for the very last time. You spent that little bit extra to get an exclusive ticket, which lives permanently in your digital wallet.
This ticket is not only proof that you attended this mile-stone event, but is also an exclusive collectable that enables the holder to replay that event and bring their friends with them whenever they want. Down the line, if you decide you’d like someone else to relive that experience you can sell it on via a digital collectables marketplace. Regardless of how much you sell it for, a set percentage of the sale price is split between the band and the event organisers, and the rest is yours after the marketplace has taken its fee.
Most of the possessions you have purchased lately sit in your digital wallet. It’s so much easier having everything in one place rather than spread across a series of emails, websites and platforms, as used to be the case a decade ago.
You decide to listen to some music to get yourself ready for the day ahead; you see that your favourite rapper, Nas, has released a new album that you want to check out. As you start listening, details of this play are being recorded and you can see how much he is being paid as you listen to his latest album. Although you don’t think it’s his best work, you keep it playing to maximise the royalties he receives.
You need to check out of your hotel today, and you’re struck by how much easier it is now then it used to be. You just touch your smart watch on a reader when you leave the room to lock the door, then again when you leave the hotel. Your smart watch is connected to your digital wallet, which contains your digital identity. You used your digital identity to enter into an agreement with the hotel for the booking, and the funds for the trip were held in escrow via a smart contract until you checked out, when they were automatically released to the hotel at the end of your stay.
Outside the hotel a fleet of self-driving taxis is plugged into chargers, waiting toAgreed take guests where they need to go. You get into one, which initiates a disconnection from the charging point. The charging point notifies the taxi of how much the charging session cost and takes payment for the session automatically. The charging cable is then released and the taxi heads off to the airport.
En route the taxi automatically pays a series of tolls for travelling on the express highway to the airport; again, these are made using micropayments to the agency responsible for maintaining the highways in Singapore.
Once you reach the airport, you are notified of the total cost of the journey, including tolls, which you approve. Unlike ten years previously, there is no payment provider here — payment goes out of your digital wallet directly to the taxi operator.
You already have your plane ticket sitting in your digital wallet, so you head straight to security and passport control, where you make use of your digital identity again.
Your digital identity is also linked to your digital passport — long gone are the days of having to show an actual passport. Now, all you have to do is scan a QR code at passport control using your digital wallet and approve sending a message to prove who you are. The facial recognition software on your phone’s camera is used to prove that the person scanning the code is the real person associated with that identity. You’re then free to head into the departure lounge.
You grab a coffee, which tastes surprisingly good for an airport coffee. There’s a QR code on the cup that you scan with your phone. This takes you to a site where you can see that the beans came from the district of Lintong Nihuta, to the south-west of Lake Toba on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, with pictures of the family who harvested them. From there the beans travelled to Singapore, where they were roasted only two weeks ago before being distributed to the coffee shop you’re at now. Sure, it’s only a cup of coffee but when it tastes this good, it’s great to know what made it the way it is.
While sitting around, you take a quick look at your asset portfolio. You have holdings in various digital assets that are all generating incomes of 5–15% annually, regardless of how small an amount you have of them. Some of these are riskier than others, but they balance out. You also hold digital dollars, euros and pounds, which are all generating yields at the lower end of this range, but way better than what your bank used to give you.
You check into social media to get some commentary from the people that inspire with no-BS advice and thoughts. You tip some of them with a micro-transaction as a thank you for keeping you inspired. It used to be so expensive to do this back when you had to use credit cards — there was a minimum fee of 50 cents for the vendors — whereas now it’s nice to be able to send fractions of a cent as easily as you like a post on social media.
You’re going to have a long flight back to London, so rather than risk the choppy internet connectivity you still get on aeroplanes (but hey, at least they don’t still try to charge you for it), you head back online to a digital marketplace to purchase some second-hand clothes for your avatar in Grand Theft Auto 7. You find some awesome retro Air-Max trainers that were part of a limited digital edition issued by Nike; you can’t believe someone is happy to sell them. Your avatar is getting the wardrobe you wish you could have.
You’re now feeling all set for your flight; you’ve got a few hours to yourself where you can immerse yourself in Grand Theft Auto 7, before you drift off to sleep and wake up in London, ready to get back to the family.
Without privacy
It’s been just over ten years since the global Covid-19 pandemic, and you’ve woken up in your hotel room in Singapore. You reach for your phone to check for messages. The person stalking you for months has sent you a message saying they know which hotel you’re staying at in Singapore. Unfortunately, without privacy, your every move is known by everyone.
You try to forget by reminiscing the great time you had last night, where through your VR headset, you were there up close with the Rolling Stones as they performed Jumping’ Jack Flash for the very last time. You spent that little bit extra to get an exclusive ticket, which lives permanently in your digital wallet.
This alerts marketers everywhere to your musical preferences and how you like to spend your time, instantly spinning up algorithms to better target you with adverts. A hacker tracks back all those who bought exclusive tickets back to their wallets, suspecting they’ll hold a huge amount of value.
This ticket is not only proof that you attended this milestone event but is also an exclusive collectable that enables the holder to replay that event and bring their friends with them whenever they want. Down the line, if you decide you’d like someone else to relive that experience, you can sell it on via a digital collectables marketplace. Unfortunately, ‘ticket’ scalping is now a lot worse. With all transactions out in the open, most purchases are now front-run (this is where your transactions are resubmitted by others with higher gas, ensuring theirs gets mined first). Sophisticated techniques have arisen using AI and access to personal data that calculate the maximum you’re willing to pay for anything enabling scalpers to profiteer.
Most of the possessions you have purchased lately sit in your digital wallet. It’s so much easier for hackers to only have to penetrate one wallet now rather than hack emails, websites and other platforms, as used to be the case a decade ago. The easiest bit of all is targeting the right wallet with everything out in the open.
You decide to listen to some music to get yourself ready for the day ahead; you see that your favourite rapper, Nas, has released a new album that you want to check out. As you start listening, details of this play are being recorded, and you can see how much he is being paid as you listen to his latest album. Although you don’t think it’s his best work, you keep it playing to maximise the royalties he receives.
Sadly, the reviews weren’t too kind, and sales didn’t do too well. With all the data available on plays out in the open, other rappers release diss tracks referencing Nas’s sales forcing him into early retirement.
Other artists face similar issues, the more successful ones facing backlashes from fans at the amount of money they’re making, forcing them out of the industry.
You need to check out of your hotel today, and you’re struck by how much easier it is now than it used to be. You just touch your smartwatch on a reader when you leave the room to lock the door, then again when you leave the hotel. As you go, you suddenly feel anxious at the thought of your stalker knowing you’ve left the hotel.
The price you paid for the stay at the hotel is broadcast across the blockchain, completely disrupting the ability of the hotel to set prices or execute on its business model. This is confirmed as you see the ‘closing soon’ sign outside the hotel.
The real winners are the data harvesters and marketers who have access to more of your data than ever. Virtual electronic billboards recognise you as you leave the hotel and immediately begin advertising based on your latest data. You’re completely overwhelmed and start to feel like you’re no longer in charge of your decisions.
En route to the airport, the taxi automatically pays a series of tolls for travelling on the express highway to the airport; again, these are made using micropayments. A gang of burglars that have been scoping out your home are alerted to you being en-route and decide it’s now or never and proceed to rob your house.
Once you reach the airport, you are notified of the total cost of the journey, including tolls, which you approve. You’re surprised at how expensive the trip is. This is because the self-driving taxi knows you stayed at an expensive hotel, so take this into account when calculating the charge. You can see the algorithms decision to do and so are left feeling down that you’re being charged more than others.
The taxi operator tracks back through the history of the tokens used to make payment, figuring out exactly how you earned those tokens, noting they were part of a large pay packet, tweaking the algorithm to charge even more next time, and alerting other operators that it has agreements with.
You already have your plane ticket sitting in your digital wallet, so you head straight to security and passport control, where you make use of your digital identity again.
Your digital identity is also linked to your digital passport — long gone are the days of having to show an actual passport. Now, all you have to do is scan a QR code at passport control using your digital wallet and approve sending a message to prove who you are. The entire airport is alerted of your presence, custom adverts appear as you walk around, salespeople run up to you.
You grab a coffee, which tastes surprisingly good for an airport coffee. You sit back and ponder as you see your coffee purchase appear on the block explorer whether the whole world really needs to know about my coffee transaction. You think back to the good old days of Facebook, where although most of it was superfluous, at least you decided what you wanted to share.
While sitting around, you take a quick look at your asset portfolio. You have holdings in various digital assets that are all generating incomes of 5–15% annually, regardless of how small an amount you have of them. The baggage handler you tipped earlier walks past and gives you a dirty look. They looked up your wallet and are insulted at the tip you’ve given, provided the number of digital assets you hold and the yield you’re making.
You head back online to a digital marketplace to purchase some second-hand clothes for your avatar in Grand Theft Auto 7. You find some awesome retro Air-Max trainers that were part of a limited digital edition issued by Nike; you can’t believe someone is happy to sell them. Unfortunately, as soon as you attempt the purchase, you’re front-run, and someone beats you to the pair of trainers, causing a 5% slippage in the price, setting a negative mood for your trip back home
You’re now feeling all set for your flight; you’ve got a few hours to yourself where you can immerse yourself in Grand Theft Auto 7 before you drift off to sleep and wake up in London, ready to rebuild your life.
We already know how much a lack of privacy is holding back blockchain adoption today, not just 10 years from now. Transactions are front-run; identity requires privacy; without identity, we can’t have credit scores; without credit scores, we can’t have under collateralised loans (all Defi loans today require you to over-collateralise with another asset). We can’t take measured risks; ConstitutionDAO was easily outbid as the world knew the maximum possible bid.
I think it’s safe to say that a world without privacy isn’t one we want to build towards. It’s for this reason that privacy-focused projects such as Corda, Manta Network, Railgun and Secret Network, and the project I work on, Obscuro (now known as Ten) are so important.
Huge thanks to Conor Svensson for kindly allowing me to use excerpts from his brilliant book The Blockchain Innovator’s Handbook: A leader’s guide to understanding, adopting and succeeding with this disruptive technology. Rethink Press.
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