Page 103 - The EDIT | Q2 2017

Because of this, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. They are a secure ledger of a series of transactions. A blockchain therefore serves as “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way.
The ledger itself can also be programmed to trigger transactions automatically.”2
What blockchain technology does is something that we currently use something else for. Banks. We rely on banks to maintain a secure ledger of all the transactions we make. Every time we spend or make money we trust the bank to keep a record of it. But blockchain is enabling that without the need of a bank.
This will transform things like peer to peer lending — whole new businesses will be built on the ability
to aggregate and distribute equity and capital from those who have it to those who need it, all without the need (and cost) of a bank-shaped middle man.
And as the quote above points out... blockchain can enable automatic transactions, determined in near-real time by — you guessed it — AI-enabled agents. In fact VPFAs (Virtual Personal Financial Assistants) will become the new normal. They
will be able to offer simple advice and manage day-to-day financial queries without the need of a human financial advisor. Humans will still be very much required, but more for the longer-term strategic questions and — for the interim — those
2 https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-truth-about-blockchain
Thoughtleader
conversations that require a degree of emotional intelligence.
The disruption to financial advice will also be
seen in other professional services like accounting (automated AI-driven tax returns), legal advice
and basic medical diagnosis. All this change will require marketing skills and expertise to keep up with new business and service models, and because communications and connection planning to the right audiences will be key, media agencies, as we’ll see, will be at the heart of this transformation.
Retail and eCommerce, and the end of ownership
Perhaps the area that will undergo the most change, will be what and how we buy. As predicted by PHD in Sentience, VPAs have developed and can now
be found in most smartphones and increasingly in homes, in devices such as Amazon’s Echo (where Alexa is the VPA) or Google Home (with Google Assistant as the VPA).
With basic tasks already being outsourced, we will soon see VPAs spread their influence into a huge range of areas — including purchase decision- making. This will include deciding which brands to buy. The reality is that whilst humans will stay in control of high-interest purchase areas (the new
car or the family holiday), anything that is of lower interest will be outsourced. This obviously is already having huge implications for FMCG and PHD is actively working with clients on how next-generation eCommerce solutions are being developed to take advantage of this.
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has a timestamp and a link to a previous block, it’s impossible to change one of the blocks — they’re locked together in lots of places simultaneously.
Continued over >
THE EDIT ISSUE 06 | Q2 2017