Earlier today, I was asked as a part of a proposal how I developed my interest in blockchain, cryptocurrency and related technologies. My dashed off answer quickly made me realize, its the ideal topic for this week's blog. NERD ALERT: I spend my days trail running, hiking, reading research, reading other futurists like Jason Hope and writing on the Internet of Things and blockchain technology. Of course, there's a story to how a girl goes back and forth from outdoorsy pursuits to business and finance everyday. It has to do with the person who introduced me to the great outdoors, business and philanthropy - my Daddy.
Research and Writing
The coins interest came out of my writing niche. I previously wrote for the business and finance blog Keysian. One of the topics I covered was FOREX. I have always had an interest in computing. In my own consultancy, I researched the impact of the Internet on drought and flood mitigation. The potential of blockchain technology as a business continuity option interests me, for example, IOTA's blocktangle and its offline sub-tangles. This means using its technology and its cryptocurrency, MIOTA, could enable businesses in areas with frequent brownouts or blackouts, like California, to continuously conduct business without electricity. Whether faced with drought, floods, mudslides, or earthquakes, it could conduct business as usual. The technologies involved also offer those in remote locations like Pitcairn Island, which only has Internet via satellite a few hours per day, to found and conduct businesses on a global schedule. Further, I grew up with an interest in business and finance, as well as, philanthropy that empowers.
My Daddy: "Preacher Charlie"
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| My Daddy and I posing for a formal portrait when I was in high school. |
But that is my adulthood. The true impetus for my interest stems from watching my dad find inventive ways to help the community, especially its impoverished. As a pre-teen, I watched my dad and one of his best friends, "Rev. Lawrence," found and run each summer, a vacation Bible school for migrant workers' children. They purchased Bibles and teaching materials in Spanish and English, thus combining ministry with language skills for the children. The kids kept all the materials and took them home, passing on their developing English skills to their parents. Speaking and reading English empowered two generations to move up and earn a better life.
Cryptocurrency: Empowering the Unbanked
Cryptocurrencies have a similar potential to empower by removing the third-party, banks. Currently, 2 billion world residents are un-banked. They either lack access or do not qualify for an account. Cryptocurrency empowers the unbanked with accounts, currency, a business platform and access to venture capital funding for smart contract projects. (IOTA builds this in and Cardano includes it in its plans.)
Blockchain: Bringing Business to the World
I believe blockchain technology and cryptocurrency done right have the potential to empower the disenfranchised, protect business continuity and provide much-needed privacy protections. Cardano's two layer system shows that there's room for meeting regulatory requirements while providing the positive potential of the blockchain to the world. While the majority of the assignments I write for clients center on initial coin offerings and portfolio investment potential, my own interest in blockchain technologies centers on its empowerment potential.
A decentralized system of business with the ability to privately barter, trade, buy and sell peer-to-peer, person-to-person, provides a way for those living in decentralized locales to found global businesses and earn a living. In many Third World countries, cell phones, especially smart phones, remain rare. In the US, those at the lowest income levels may only have a free cell phone with limited free service from a government program. These usually provide 500 MB of data per month. In areas such as my Oklahoma research area, some homes have no electricity. Emerging technology allows people in such situations as these to set up an automated business on the blockchain, or better, the blocktangle. Remember, those offline sub-tangles enable offline transactions.
Decentralized Opportunities
Once built, smart contracts run exactly as programmed, requiring no human intervention. That lets someone of limited means begin. As they make sales and earn cryptocurrency they can reconnect weekly to exchange one currency for another. To cash out for actual cash at first, to pay bills and purchase an unlimited data plan, a mere $30 to $40 cost in the US. As their small business grows, rather than Proof of Work, they can move to Stake, holding much of their currency as its value grows. Imagine a technology that allows the poorest peoples to create a method of making a living regardless of geography, topography or ethnicity. On the blockchain, all is code and the address delivers you to an app or exchange, not a barrio or dirt farm. No one sees skin, hears accent or knows your hometown. I love blockchain, cryptocurrency and its related technologies because it provides each person with the same fertile fields to plow, an egalitarian system of creation, idea and philosophy that gives each person an equal chance to succeed and to thrive - decentralized.
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Carlie Lawson writes about tech, mobile and online video, entertainment, sports and fashion. She wrote for JollyJo.tv, Keysian and Movitly for a combined seven years. A former newspaper journalist, she now mostly ghost writes for her clients via her company, Powell Lawson Creatives. Invalid Inputs is her first independent, formal blog. She earned BAs in Journalism and Film & Video Studies from the University of Oklahoma. She also earned her Master of Regional & City Planning at OU. She has worked as a model since she was 17.
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