BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY - COULD CHANGE THE WORLD
During the past few years, the latest “buzzword” within the entrepreneurial community has been “disruption.”
What exactly is disruption and how does it apply to bitcoin?
In its simplest form, disruptive innovation is a term used to describe an upheaval that creates a new market and value network.
The new innovation eventually disrupts the existing market by displacing the leading firms, products and alliances within the market.
Clayton M Christensen is credited with coining the term, “disruptive innovation” in 1995. Many financial historians have called it the “most influential business idea of the early 21st century”.
- See more at: https://www.netpicks.com/blockchain-technology-disruptive-innovation-way/
2. During the past few years, the latest “buzzword” within the entrepreneurial community
has been “disruption.”
What exactly is disruption and how does it apply to bitcoin?
In its simplest form, disruptive innovation is a term used to describe an upheaval
that creates a new market and value network.
The new innovation eventually disrupts the existing market by displacing the leading
firms, products and alliances within the market.
Clayton M Christensen is credited with coining the term, “disruptive innovation” in
1995. Many financial historians have called it the "most influential business idea of the
early 21st century".
Types of Innovation - Blockchain Disruption
According to Christensen, there are actually four different types of innovation.
Sustaining innovation does not significantly affect existing markets.
Evolutionary innovation improves a product in an existing market.
Revolutionary innovation is unexpected but does not affect existing markets.
Disruptive innovation creates a completely new market by providing a different
set of values which ultimately (and unexpectedly) overtakes an existing market.
An example of an evolutionary innovation would be fuel injection for gasoline
engines, which displaced carburetors.
An example of a revolutionary innovation would be the first automobiles in the late
19th century. The first automobile was certainly quite revolutionary. However, it was
extremely expensive and considered a luxury item.
It had no disruptive force on the horse & buggy industry because very few automobiles
were sold. In 1908, the very first affordable automobile was introduced to the general
public was the Ford Model T.
This is a perfect example of a disruptive innovation because it eventually
eliminated the horse & buggy industry.
As you can see, a disruptive innovation is truly a spectacular occurrence. It has the
ability to completely change the way society functions.
3. Disruptive innovations are generational events, definitely not something you see every
day (think of the internet). The dream of any entrepreneur or startup company is to
create a product or service that is truly disruptive.
Most business owners never experience this dream.
It’s truly a rare event.
In the grand scheme of disruptive innovations, where does this leave bitcoin?
Did Satoshi Nakamoto actually realize the dream of all entrepreneurs?
Does bitcoin truly have disruptive capabilities or is it all hype?
Before we answer that question, let’s review Nakamoto’s bitcoin discovery from 2008.
There seems to be some confusion concerning exactly what Nakamoto discovered.
Blockchain Technology Is Needed For Bitcoin To
Exist
Nakamoto introduced bitcoin to the world on January 3, 2009. However, he also
introduced blockchain technology.
Without the blockchain, bitcoin doesn’t exist. It’s useless.
In fact, the blockchain that supports bitcoin was developed specifically for the digital
currency. This explains why it took people so long to realize that the technology could be
used in other areas.
In its simplest form, blockchain is a digital decentralized ledger that keeps a record of all
transactions that take place across a peer-to-peer network.
The major innovation is the fact that the technology allows market participants to
transfer assets across the internet without the need for a centralized third party.
In other words, blockchain technology removes the middleman from all
transactions.
Without question, bitcoin and the accompanying blockchain technology certainly have
the potential to disrupt many different industries. Of course, this explains why the price
of bitcoin has exploded to the upside during the past 12 months.
Let’s explore a few of the industries that could be on the verge of major changes.
4. Industries Poised for Disruption
This is not going to be an exhaustive list of all industries that have the potential of
"disruptive innovation" but it should give you a good idea of what is on the horizon.
Banks
Arguably, the most vulnerable industry to blockchain technology is the financial services
industry. Specifically, banks have the most to lose in terms of the blockchain’s ability to
completely alter the way they operate.
Why are banks vulnerable?
Because the traditional banking model hasn’t changed in over 300 years. The
Bank of England introduced the original banking model in 1695. Essentially, it’s
remained the same for 323 years.
A bank is nothing more than a financial intermediary. It acts as a middleman between
consumers and their money. Therefore, it’s a very simple model to disrupt.
The blockchain is a disinter-mediation wrecking machine. It performs best at
removing all third party participants, like the banks.
Banks are literally asking to be disrupted. Twenty years from now, the banking industry
will look completely different than it does today. The majority of the change will be
driven by bitcoin and the blockchain.
Money Transfers
The business of money transfers is very similar to the banking industry in the fact that
nothing has changed in 150 years. The industry has remained static for the past century.
Blockchain could easily be used to create a more direct payment flow that connects
payers and payees without intermediaries.
This flow of payments could occur domestically or across borders with extremely low
fees and lightning fast speed.
Anybody who has attempted to send money via wire transfer will probably welcome a
change to the money transfer model.
5. Education
Education is another example of an industry that has remained stagnant for decades.
Blockchain technology is waiting in the wings to rescue this largely bureaucratic
industry from the dustbin of mediocrity.
By its very nature, the education industry is centered around the necessity of
verification. All academic credentials must be universally recognized and verifiable. This
verification process involves all educational levels, primary & secondary schools as well
as university environments.
Verifying academic credentials largely remains a manual process, creating a huge
amount of unnecessary paperwork.
Introducing blockchain technology to the education system could streamline
verification procedures, thus reducing fraudulent claims of unearned educational
credits.
Sony Global Education and IBM have teamed up together to develop a new educational
platform that uses blockchain to secure and share student records. This is just the tip of
the iceberg in terms of the blockchain’s ability to uproot the fledging education system.
Voting
Now here’s an industry that definitely needs help with a more streamlined verification
process and increased transparency. As we all know, elections require authentication of
voters’ identity along with secure record keeping to track votes.
In the not-too-distant future, blockchain tools could serve as a foundational
infrastructure for casting, tracking and counting votes.
Follow My Vote is a blockchain voter startup company on the leading edge of
introducing this technology to the voter industry. The company recently unveiled the
alpha version of its program.
Essentially, the program creates a verifiable audit trail, ensuring that no votes are
changed or removed and no illegitimate votes are added. Say goodbye to voter fraud!
Real Estate
This industry is very similar to education in terms of paperwork and verification. Title
companies are notorious for sloppy record keeping involving deeds, liens and other real
estate forms.
6. Public records for real estate are filled with errors and possible fraud. The process for
recording deeds and liens has changed very little during the past several years, despite
the fact that we live in a new age of technology.
The blockchain offers a way to reduce the need for paper-based record keeping and also
increase transactions. It can help record, track and transfer land titles and property
deeds more accurately.
This is a perfect industry for blockchain technology to upend.
Healthcare
As it stands today, the healthcare industry is unable to securely share data across
platforms. Enhancing data collaboration between providers could ultimately mean a
higher probability of accurate diagnoses.
In turn, this would increase the likelihood of appropriate treatments which
would allow the healthcare industry to deliver more cost-effective care.
Blockchain technology could allow hospitals, payers and other parties in the healthcare
chain to share their networks without compromising data security and integrity.
Two startup companies are leading the charge to promote the blockchain within the
healthcare industry. These companies are Gem and Tierion.
Gem is concentrating on establishing data sharing between healthcare providers
Tierion is building a platform for data storage and verification.
The Tip Of The Blockchain Iceberg
These are just a few of the industries that are prime candidates for bitcoin and
blockchain disruption. Other industries include:
energy
cloud storage
legal
retail
crowdfunding
charity
supply chain management.
This is just the beginning of the bitcoin and blockchain revolution. We are still in the
first inning of this disruptive innovation.
7. Why have so many of these industries remained stagnant for the past several decades?
The answer is quite simple; job security.
There was absolutely no incentive for the majority of these quasi monopolistic
companies to promote change. However, the tide is turning, thanks to bitcoin and the
blockchain.
Twenty years from now, the majority of these industries will look completely different
versus today.