Is there a technology you can trust?
/My father was an accountant. For 70 years, he produced pristine double-entry ledgers in the most beautiful hand-writing. That was his art.
Double entry bookkeeping is a 700-year-old technology. Its invention enabled commerce as we know it. But today it's just cumbersome and its days may be numbered.
Accounting provides a tracking mechanism for the transaction of goods and services. Massive industries have been built to work around untrustworthiness—global banking is a $2tn example, and information security, at $100bn, follows a broken model.
How disruptive could a new model for trust be? Thing is, just such a model may be around the corner.
There's a lot of talk about Blockchain today. Business talk about the viability of cryptocurrencies, tech talk about the scalability of the current solution.
But this is missing the point. Blockchain is a 10 year old technology that has whet many appetites for a better way to trace the movement of goods and the exchange of value by making the breadcrumbs publicly available.
It's still early days—but this is not another startup fad. Those whetted appetites include Walmart and Maersk. Think of the internet in 1994.
So don't fret about bitcoins or the technology. If the concept of the Internet of Trust is exciting enough, we'll find a way to make it work.
And what could be a more exciting goal for the next generation of technology?
Are you up for an Internet of Trust?
Think about all the ways that you exchange value today, and every day. Now consider the inconveniences you would avoid if this could be done seamlessly. For example:
No POs, invoices or credit card bills.
Easy tracing of your goods from source to destination—no more waybills.
Near real-time accounting and instant revenue recognition.
And so on.
What does trust have to do with your business?
Trusting Technology is a book about forming ideas, exploring opportunities with customers and colleagues, and building your future together. Order you copy here . This article is also available in hardcopy as part of my 10-minute Reflections series of exercises—order volume 1 here and volume 2 here.