Page 23 - The Fourth Industrial Revolution

custodian or central ledger. In essence, the blockchain is a shared,

programmable, cryptographically secure and therefore trusted ledger which
no single user controls and which can be inspected by everyone.

Bitcoin is so far the best known blockchain application but the technology
will soon give rise to countless others. If, at the moment, blockchain
technology records financial transactions made with digital currencies such
as Bitcoin, it will in the future serve as a registrar for things as different as

birth and death certificates, titles of ownership, marriage licenses,
educational degrees, insurance claims, medical procedures and votes –
essentially any kind of transaction that can be expressed in code. Some

countries or institutions are already investigating the blockchain’s potential.
The government of Honduras, for example, is using the technology to handle
land titles while the Isle of Man is testing its use in company registration.

On a broader scale, technology-enabled platforms make possible what is
now called the on-demand economy (referred to by some as the sharing
economy). These platforms, which are easy to use on a smart phone,
convene people, assets and data, creating entirely new ways of consuming

goods and services. They lower barriers for businesses and individuals to
create wealth, altering personal and professional environments.

The Uber model epitomizes the disruptive power of these technology
platforms. These platform businesses are rapidly multiplying to offer new
services ranging from laundry to shopping, from chores to parking, from

home-stays to sharing long-distance rides. They have one thing in common:
by matching supply and demand in a very accessible (low cost) way, by
providing consumers with diverse goods, and by allowing both parties to
interact and give feedback, these platforms therefore seed trust. This

enables the effective use of under-utilized assets – namely those belonging
to people who had previously never thought of themselves as suppliers (i.e.
of a seat in their car, a spare bedroom in their home, a commercial link
between a retailer and manufacturer, or the time and skill to provide a

service like delivery, home repair or administrative tasks).

The on-demand economy raises the fundamental question: What is worth
owning – the platform or the underlying asset? As media strategist Tom
Goodwin wrote in a TechCrunch article in March 2015: “Uber, the world’s
largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most

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