Blockchain and Bitcoin Blues

[This is an archived blog item written in March 2018, when I was working at 44 Communications.]

Following a few bits of bad press for technology, Tom Ives, 44’s Head of Innovation and Insight, takes a look at a few new tools coming down the line and bringing a more positive future with them.

I’m sure you will have heard about two of the latest scandals to rock the world of tech recently. First came the Facebook data scandal where a confusing four-year-old data breach that affected 50 million individuals resulted in political campaign specialist Cambridge Analytica suspending their CEO Alex Nix.
One company got the data legitimately from users of a Facebook app, but then broke the rules by passing it to third parties, one of which being Cambridge Analytica. These third parties then allegedly used the data as intelligence for targeting the most susceptible audiences for the fake news surrounding the Trump election. This has also raised questions about the Brexit vote too.
This was bad press for progress, as it showed that technology originally envisioned to bring communities together can be manipulated to drive them apart.
Secondly, came the story of a tragic fatality when a pedestrian was hit by a self-driving car in Arizona. It’s too early to know exactly why it happened, but it’s clearly a watershed moment for a utopian idea.

Take back control

The #deletefacebook campaign is a predictable knee jerk reaction to the scandal – to abandon the site in protest. But tempting as it seems to me, I can’t leave the ad network where I do 90% of my socialising with family and friends. And it is an ad network – the service is free because our data is the product Facebook make money from. As the data breach proves, we – ‘the products’ – are truly valuable. Companies can use our data for their own gain, if they can access it. The popularity of the hashtag is a sign that the public want to take ownership of how their information is used and want to know what’s happening.
To realise we are treating this new technology like cigarettes in the 60s; chain smoking because adverts tell us it’s good for us.
People need and want to take back control. If we are ‘the product’ then we should get to make some of the calls. It is possible to manipulate technology to… , but there is always another incoming wave that can solve the problems in the last iteration. Whether you believe innovation comes from the rainforest effect of mass competition and diversity, or that necessity is the mother of invention, dissatisfaction with the status quo drives opportunity for promising alternatives. One of these upcoming opportunities is the blockchain.

Blockchain

Even if you haven’t heard of blockchain, you may well have heard of bitcoin – the cryptocurrency that runs on it. The simplest explanation of the blockchain is a record of something shared over so many computers connected to the internet that it can’t be maliciously changed or hacked, as the difference would instantly stand out from the other million. Bitcoin is a new kind currency that uses the blockchain as a record of transactions (and so doesn’t need banks or international financial rules).
But bitcoin has a lot of hype surrounding it, and its own share of bad press. Blockchain on the other hand could be a technology to fuel a more hopeful future. One of many imagined applications is the end of passwords (weak or strong), as the blockchain will be able to verify your real identity, because it knows your history. Another use is a decentralised store of any important data – meaning central servers can’t be hacked for the data, as it’s not all kept in the same place.

Another way

Inventor of the world wide web Sir Tim Berners-Lee has begun a new project called Solid. Solid imagines a world where you would keep your private data like money in the bank, and allow social networks (or any business) to access it how and when you wished them to. If you were unhappy with the service, you’d withdraw your money (data). The social networks wouldn’t be able to sell this data on, or be hacked or breached – as they wouldn’t hold it centrally anymore.
This would change the business model of some of the biggest companies in the world (not just the internet) Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple. They have grown so fast because they scale their profit on our addiction to convenience, and what this data tells them about what we’ll buy for Christmas. The blockchain, Solid or another bit of tech yet to be invented could create a new version of LinkedIn where we take our connections, experience and merit from one employer to another – owning our own career credit as we go.