DC Velocity - December 2018

30 DC VELOCITY DECEMBER 2018 www.dcvelocity.com
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about the hope and the hype. The hype is really tied to what happened with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies—the ability to move this money backed by nothing, supported by no one. It became a very big bubble that had implications beyond financial markets. There were nefarious bad actors and third parties using the money to do different illegal things, politically subversive things, and this is a really big problem. Regulators started clamping down at the end of last year and through this year, and that is likely to continue. So cryptos that want to work outside of the banking system, outside of regulation, are likely to wither on the vine and come under further pressure, whereas those that work within the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) banking system [a secure network used by financial institutions to exchange information about transactions] will have more potential to continue. But the hype bubble has very likely burst.

Now, in stark contrast to the bubble of the anonymous, subversive, and mobster-ish use of some of the cryptocurrencies, there is also the hope for blockchain. And that’s as a factor for reducing the risk of a “central point of failure,” something that in a supply chain is critical. It’s also something that can add transparency of transactions, which is really, really good.

The Futurist Institute recently did an analysis that looked at different industries and their use cases. Freight transportation and logistics stood out as one of the areas that could most benefit from the use of blockchain because it involves high-volume transactions, you can have a closed blockchain [one that’s restricted to parties that have been invited], and you can share more detail. That is really important because sometimes in the supply chain, you’ve got conflict minerals or chemicals restrictions or you might need to show the chain of custody. These are really important things to do… and that is the promise of it. That is the hope, against the hype that we see on the crypto side.

To put it in more simplistic terms, what this means is it’s a more detailed kind of accounting software. It is database technology. It’s actually not that exciting, right? In general, this is like, you know, when Lotus 1-2-3 was first introduced was first introduced—that was a huge deal for folks in accounting. This is like SAP [a much more sophisticated type of enterprise software]—this level of data enhancing the richness, enhancing the transparency. That is all very good, but the hype makes it seem like a lot more than that, and I think we are moving now from a hype phase into implementation. I think what we will find is that the implementation, although useful in some cases, is not as crazy or as interesting as the hype has led some to believe.

RETHINK MFG.

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