Introduction to "Blockchain for Impact"
Our planet is in dire straits and millions of people work in thousands of organisations in an effort to solve humanity’s to-do list: the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). If you’re one of those people with a deep concern for our planet, this book is for you.
Blockchain for Impact offers you something much more valuable than what blockchain and cryptocurrencies are and what to think about them — we're going to focus on HOW to think about these emerging technologies and the ways in which they will change the world forever. And we're going to talk about real, lasting impact.
Despite the vast commitment of time, talent and money, there remains an estimated $50 trillion funding gap required to address the SDGs and progress towards the UN's 2030 goals seems painfully slow — even inconsequential.
Why is that?
The inconvenient truth is that decisively addressing global challenges — just like curing disease — is not a sustainable business model. The bottom line is that it is more profitable to pour millions of dollars into repeat prescriptions and ongoing efforts to tackle symptoms than it is to offer effective cures. Analysts at consulting firms know this, which is why they recommend business models based on recurring revenue, rather than an effective once-off solution. They recommend a focus on short-term profit, rather than long-term systemic health.
I hope that makes you furious.
The reality is that we’ve allowed middlemen in Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Big Soda and Big Banking to skim off vast profits at the expense of humanity. These industries exist — not for the betterment of humanity — but for the sole purpose of extracting profit.
It is well-known what a middleman is: he is a man who bamboozles one party and plunders the other.
— Benjamin Disraeli, Former British Prime Minister, 1804–1881
Sadly, the constellation of individuals, organisations and networks who are working for the common good are mostly unaware that their efforts stand little chance of long-term impact. That’s why I’ve written this book. I can no longer stand idly by and watch the deterioration of the majority at the expense of the minority. There has to be a different way.
Thankfully, at the same time that middlemen are becoming more powerful, new technologies have emerged which have the capability of making middlemen obsolete. Those technologies are cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Collectively they are known as Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), but to keep things simple we'll refer to them all as blockchain.
The Internet radically changed society when it was introduced in the late 90’s. Blockchain’s potential to radically change society is exponentially greater. The problem is that most world-positive¹ individuals and initiatives are not aware of what exactly blockchain is. The explanations they’ve heard makes their eyes glaze over because the techno-babble involved is just too difficult to understand.
This book will help you develop a mental model of blockchain technology, specifically in order to help you understand its potential impact on society and business. Capitalism has been the driving ideology of the West. By the end of this book, you should have basic knowledge of blockchain ideology. It’s my hope that with this new ideology we’ll be able to collaboratively write an entirely new social agreement for humanity. What I'm suggesting is an open-source governance. Think of a Constitution for Humanity maintained in the form of a wiki — open-source and editable by anyone. This book will introduce many of the tools which already exist to achieve open-source governance, built on blockchain technology, showing that rebooting humanity is entirely possible.
That’s how big of a deal blockchain is.
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This book is divided into three parts.
Part 1 — The Past: This section explains a little about how society has evolved so that you can understand the context of why blockchain is important right now. We also look at the limitations of the SDGs.
Part 2 — The Present: This section provides non-technical examples of how the blockchain can be used, showing examples and case studies.
Part 3 — The Future: This section talks about how we, as non-technical world-positives, can influence the outcome of blockchain and our future world.
This book does not have to be read start to finish. Rather, it is an index of subjects which you can reference to get an understanding of underlying concepts. The blockchain industry is a collaborative one, and so this book will cite materials from a number of key players. I’ve intentionally kept the book short and light and, most importantly, non-technical. You do not need to have any previous coding or tech experience to understand any of it. Additional materials are referenced throughout and these are key in pushing the discussion further, beyond the limitations of this book.
What this book is not
This book is not about setting up a wallet and buying and trading cryptocurrencies. It does not give you advice on which cryptocurrencies to buy or mine. At the end of the book I’ll provide suggestions on how to enter the crypto and blockchain space, but getting an understanding of the ideology is far more important before diving in.
Updates
You’re welcome to share copies of this book with as many people as you’d like. Due to the nature of this rapidly growing and changing space, purchasers of the book will receive updates via the publishing platform as soon as they are available. This will allow anyone who has purchased the book to receive updates about latest developments. Purchasers will also be invited to relevant in-person or virtual discussions of late-breaking topics.
How to ask questions, add comments and raise concerns
One of the things that makes the blockchain community so wonderful is their willingness to collaborate. The commitment to open source means that collaborative efforts result in wonderful tools for learning produced by the community. So, in the spirit of co-creation, your feedback and input help me improve the quality of this book, which ultimately helps make the world a better place. Please do provide any feedback you’d like — it is greatly appreciated. Using this form helps me keep track of everything. Please let me know about:
- a link that does not work, or a citation that leads to outdated information;
- a page or topic you need more detail for or need to be included because it’s currently missing and you feel it would aid understanding;
- a question, comment, or a concern you may have.
Thanks for spending your time here. I’m very aware of how bad things are for our planet, so I take my responsibility to cut through the hype extremely seriously.
Next: History Repeats
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1. World-positive is a term coined by Obvious Ventures and will be used throughout this book to include all individuals and all organisations that are working for the common good.