Which would you rather have; Trust or Money?
An interesting debate that many would say isn’t worth spending time on.
Nevertheless, we would all complain if the cashier in a shop short-changed us of 10 euros, dollars, pounds etc. So money is important to us and obviously trust is too.
We have to trust people everyday; to do what they said they would (like paying salaries), to be honest and not corrupt (like some of our politicians), the list goes on.
When push comes to shove, even the value of money is largely based on trust. Who sets the interest rates? Politicians and banks that’s who. Do you trust them? Yes, because we have no choice, I hear you say.
If we have all our money in banks, we have to suffer in silence as they charge us for our international transfers and sometimes even to take our own money out! All this and at the same time giving us pitiful interest rates.
However, by having an online wallet for cryptocurrencies we can obtain goods and services and transaction fees are very low, giving a certain satisfaction that you saving money.
In fact Leonard Boord, a specialist on the crypto economy, heralded the crypto-wallet as the “Killer App of 2018” due to the ease of which it allows you to send and receive value.
Whilst it is true that the value of these currencies fluctuate as shares do, industry is seeing the benefits and enormous potential of trading using blockchain and cryptocurrencies. This in turn will lead to an inevitable increase in the value of them.
Furthermore,Ryan Hardy, another cryptocurrency analyst at the conference, assures us that the market is maturing and the fast buck speculators have left and now companies should be working hard to put the “trust” back into the business. In fact, he mentioned tokenized securities or “STOs” to be the way forward.
Another key word used at the trade fair by Maneeb Iqbal Shah of Wipro in relation to Smart contracts was “Trustless contracts”and it would seem by the talks I attended that all the companies involved in blockchain are using them.
Now if you are like me, you would run a mile from them on the grounds that they are “without trust” as useless contracts are “without use”. The logic is simple but paradoxically erroneous as a trustless contract is a contract where there is no necessity to trust as it is so transparent that all parties can see all the transactions relating to it.
What is more, Smart contracts cannot be erased once they are uploaded to the blockchain so what is agreed forms a part of the permanent code that all parties use.
It should however be noted that Smart contracts are only as smart as the people who set them up and can be prone to bugs that freeze your funds or be exploited by hackers.
Nevertheless, they are an integral part of the future of business. Simon Toprak of Trusted Cars explained how they provide the company with vital information about the client that helps them to make personalized offers and facilitate trade in cryptocurrency.
We are living times of discontentment and people are demanding more accountability.
Banks have had a large part to play in economic crisis by giving out bad credit and they continue to do so – what profit can be gained by buying a curve TV on credit? Furthermore, politicians are constantly in the news for taking bribes or misdirecting public funds.
If blockchain technology, cryptocurrency and Smart contracts can be used to readjust the status quo and make life difficult for the money-grabbing banks and corrupt politicians thereby cleaning up financial markets, I say what are we waiting for?!
Returning to my initial debate (please excuse the digression); Trust or Money? Before the congress, I would have unequivocally said trust – we only have to think how we would feel if we lose it compared to the feeling of losing money. Although now, after my too short visit, I would say; Trust is invaluable, yes! but use it only when you have to as it can be misplaced. As far as money is concerned, it is only as good as what you can buy with it so why not open your mind to a cryptocurrency – it may have more value.
Written by Simon f. about lessons learnt at the Blockchain Solution World Congress 2018.
This article has been original published in October 26, 2018 by Payger