BUSINESS - Blockchain Research Institute Launches in Canada

(Alex and Don Tapscott)

Don Tapscott, co-author of the best-selling book Blockchain Revolution with Alex Tapscott, announced the formation of the Blockchain Research Institute (BRI) at the DC Blockchain Summit.

Based in Toronto, Canada and funded by companies and governments from several countries, the BRI will conduct the definitive exploration of blockchain use cases, opportunities and implementation challenges.

A global team of dozens of experts will explore financial services, manufacturing, retail, energy and resources, technology/media, healthcare and government; as well as how this new technology changes the way companies are managed.

“We believe blockchain is a transformative technology for businesses. The Blockchain Research Institute with its brilliant team will deepen and enrich the knowledge about blockchain. We highly appreciate and fully support this effort and will contribute our deep expertise in business processes as the global leader in enterprise software,” Juergen Mueller, SAP Chief Innovation Officer, said in a release.

Founding members include:

• Technology Industry – Accenture, IBM, SAP
• Financial Industry –  Digital Asset, NASDAQ
• Global Corporations – Pepsico, Centrica, Liberty Global
• Government – Province of Ontario, University Health Network
• Blockchain Pioneers – Nuco Inc., Paycase, Artlery, Votem, Cosmos, Youbase, Wisekey
• Affiliate Organizations – The Hyperledger Project, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, Coala.io, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance

With the growth in cryptocurrency and slow death of cash, blockchain is being adopted by a wide variety of industries around the world.

Blockchain technology describes a distributed, highly secure platform, ledger or database where value – everything from money, stocks, bonds, intellectual property, and deeds, to music, art and even votes – can be stored and exchanged without powerful intermediaries.

Ross Mauri, General Manager z Systems, IBM, said, “Blockchain has the potential to address some of the world's most pressing challenges --  from streamlining trade, to establishing trust in transactions, to tracing provenance for food safety. By working with top experts from around the world, we’ll be able to take full advantage of blockchain’s inherent strengths -- an openly-governed, collaborative approach – to make global business more efficient and transparent for consumers."

Don and Alex Tapscott will lead the BRI as co-executive directors.

Not limiting itself to research, the Institute will actively work on strategies to make a blockchain economy happen.

Projected program deliverables include reports and tools that disseminate program conclusions among member organizations, monthly webinars and executive briefings.

A Program Summit for institute members will be held in the spring of 2018.

FUTURE TRENDS - The Slow Death of Cash

Cash is probably dying.

Slowly, perhaps very slowly, but it is almost certainly headed the way of the payphone and electronic currency is taking its place.

Although responses to this idea vary, and some are concerned about the risks associated with a cashless society, there are some good arguments that the death of cash is a good thing for both global and national economies.

Cash is slow and cumbersome, and notoriously difficult to keep safe.

It can be stolen, counterfeited, lost. It is both the object of crime – in the US there were 4,000 bank robberies in 2015 – and the enabler of crime. 

Electronic currency is safer, faster, and less expensive to maintain.

Although many people are concerned about hackers, cryptocurrency such as bitcoin offers the blockchain, a system that ensures every transaction is legitimate and is tracked in an open, transparent, online ledger system.

Blockchain’s educational website makes the argument that blockchains “provide an opportunity to build a global infrastructure untethered from the stability or permission of governments and institutions.”

Although that might sound like a utopia to some, it raises serious concerns about issues like taxation, and the social services and infrastructure maintenance that depends on tax revenue.

Although Blockchain Revolution, by Dan and Alex Tapscott does not address tax specifically, the book does include a chapter on how bitcoin and blockchains have the potential to revolutionize government by introducing true transparency and agency over how money, votes, and even property move between individuals and organizations.

They see the potential in bitcoin and blockchains to change everything from banking to government to the very foundations of capitalism and the corporate entity.

Does it sound confusing?

That’s because it is. The shift to electronic currency is one that has been happening globally for years.

This is a change in how money is accessed, but not a fundamental shift in how money is conceptualized.

There’s a debit card in every wallet, and most banks now accept cheques via smartphone photo, but money is still money. The value of e-money is still tied directly to the amount of fiat currency (any legal tender issued by a central authority and backed by regulation) that it represents.

Cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, is fundamentally different.

It is disconnected from governmental and banking authorities, and is only beginning to edge up to the legislative and regulatory realities that will make it viable for the average person.

It will take time for cryptocurrency to reach a broad audience, and even longer for it to replace either cash or electronic currency.

One element at play is humans’ psychological attachment to physical money.

It’s been around for thousands of years, and the very untraceability that makes cash the focus of criminal activity also makes it valuable to anyone who wants to make a purchase that is not digitally linked to their identity.

However, despite the challenges facing digital currency in either crypto- or e-money forms, digital transactions are here to stay.

Kenya has the world’s leading mobile-money system, M-Pesa, which is used by more than 17 million Kenyans. The system relies entirely on mobile phones, and has made transferring money easier, faster, and safer, and bypasses banks entirely. 

However it happens, and at whatever pace, it’s clear that money is going digital and even if cash doesn’t disappear in the next decade, its place in people’s lives will be shifting.

By Tiffany Sostar

Tiffany is a writer, editor, academic, and animal lover who came late to her appreciation of pets. At 18, a rescue pup named Tasha saved her from a depression and she hasn't looked back. She has worked as the canine behaviour program coordinator for the Calgary Humane Society, and was a dog trainer specializing in working with fearful and reactive dogs for many years. She doesn't have any pets right now, but makes up for it by giving her petsitting clients (and any dogs she comes across on her frequent coffee shop adventures) extra snuggles.