Tag: crypto

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Business & Society

Banks hinder innovation by blocking the FinTech industry

Banks may be considered secure, but they are failing to provide satisfactory and effective services for billions of people and hinder the development of the financial sector. Is FinTech the solution?

Crises do not only foster personal growth but also societal developments. The 2008 global financial crisis led to the growth of an innovative financial industry called fintech. FinTech is short for Financial Technology and is used to describe an industry that combine new technology and financial services. Commonly FinTech companies offer digital payments instruments, lending, crowd funding and open banking as well as cryptocurrency. The Swedish FinTech sector has grown more than fifteenfold since 2008 and is proud to offer a healthy innovative environment for about 450 FinTech companies. Stockholm is a hub for many FinTech companies such as Klarna, Avanza, Qliro and Nordnet.

However, innovation can be disruptive. FinTech is seen as a threat to traditional banks as it eliminates the middleman in economic transactions. Traditional banks are making it harder for people to interact with FinTech companies by banning the use of debit and credit cards for cryptocurrency purchases. The Swedish bank Handelsbanken have blocked the use of debit cards on the crypto exchange Binance and the credit card company Remember have blocked all crypto purchases. Since the beginning of 2022 it is not possible to buy crypto with a Swedish debit or credit card on any of the major crypto exchanges.

The official explanation for blocking crypto payments is that it protects the customers for risky investments and from fraud. Hang on! What‘s’ going on here? I am not a gambler, but I am sure that I can use my debit/credit card when I go to a casino. I know I can use it to buy a few margaritas in the nightclub… I do not need any bank to decide for me what an risky investment is.

The only reasonable explanation for blocking crypto payments is that crypto is seen as a threat to the core business model of traditional banking. It is common knowledge that traditional finance is fearful of the transformative power of the crypto industry. At first glance it may seem natural that traditional banks protect themselves, but it is a violation of freedom when they try control how we spend our money.

On a broader scale these measures by the banks pose a threat to the FinTech industry and hinders innovation. The FinTech industry is a growing part of the financial system in Sweden and have earned 0.15 percent of the nation’s GDP. Some FinTech firms use blockchain technology and crypto currency in their business model. Sweden is increasingly seen as an international player in the FinTech industry and traditional banking will go through changes in the fourth industrial revolution. It’s a fact that major global banks use blockchain technology as a way to improve their service. But blocking banking card transactions to crypto exchanges sends another very clear message.

The traditional banking sector is seen as a secure with government guarantees but it has failed to help those in most need. There are approximately 1.7 billion unbanked people in the world and most of them are women. In developing countries 94 percent of the population has a bank account but in developing countries the figure falls to 63 percent. On a global scale 72 percent of all males have a bank account and 65 percent of women do.

FinTech has potential to provide banking services for the unbanked and help to solve the problem with financial inequality. I would like to ask the traditional banking industry how one can live without having a basic checking of savings account!? How can a person live a normal life when there is no way to get a loan or difficult to pay for groceries. How are banks helping the poor?

Well, let’s not forget. Banks are not our friends. The world would be wise to consider what the FinTech industry can do to improve the current financial system. Lets create a sound financial system for the benefit of mankind. A system that do not exclude either traditional banks or the crypto industry.

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Business & Society

Can blockchain technology be used in national elections?

Digital elections can solve problems with queues and boost voter turnout. Why are we not using blockchain technology for national elections?

Sweden recently had a national election and reports suggest that some districts experienced long queues due to new voting procedures in polling stations. The ballot papers were placed in a booth to increase privacy, but this led to increased queues. The Swedish Election Government (Valmyndigheten) also claimed that the participation rate experienced a downturn.

Democracies perform better when more people vote, and we need to use technology to make the voting process more effective.

The pandemic showed the world that we need to look at different ways to organize important democratic events. For a democratic society to function properly, people need to be able to vote regardless of the situation a country is in. War or peace. We therefore need to use technology in the best possible way to decrease the risk of elections frauds world-wide and to increase voting participation. Is blockchain technology the out of the box solution?

According to research blockchain technology can be used for elections. Blockchain technology can be used to decrease the risk of fraud by decreasing human involvement in the voting process. By using an electronic voting system people will have a secure and easy way to vote without leaving home, but is blockchain technology ready to be used for a national election?

I was given the opportunity to work in the Swedish election and experienced the problems of manually handling ballots. Each ballot had to be handled according to strict guidelines to ensure a secure, anonymous, and trustworthy voting process. I was surprised to see that each ballot is still manually counted. We often had to recount the votes several times since they did not always match the voting registry. The counting process was time consuming and votes from abroad needed to arrive before national results could be presented. It was an honour to serve the Swedish democracy, but I wonder why we are still using old school ways of voting.

Research show that blockchain technology is not enough for national elections. One problem is that the blockchain stores data in such a way that a national election will be too large for the blockchain if privacy is essential in the election. Currently, blockchain technology can only be used in elections where votes are only counted without being verified. In short. Using blockchain technology gets tricky as soon as we need to know that our individual votes have been counted but without showing who we voted for. Solving this technological puzzle takes time. The blockchain expert and creator of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson has predicted that we need 3–5 years before the blockchain technology may be ready to be used in a national election.

The crypto space is eager to talk about the potential of using blockchain technology to solve major problems with election fraud in developing nations. But clearly blockchain technology needs to develop further before it can be used in national elections. Sweden will likely stick to its remarkably transparent voting system for many years to come as people have a high degree of trust in government organisations and the traditional voting system. Technology will take a bigger role if that trust is broken.

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Business & Society

Growing pains of the crypto industry

Scams, hacks and rug pulls are causing billions in losses for investors and harming crypto businesses. Exchanges and decentralized finance companies go bankrupt. Rogue states use anonymous crypto currencies to fund military spending. Governments ban certain blockchain solutions and traditional finance are in a shoot-out with the crypto industry. Is this normal for the emergence of new technologies?

The internet started its public journey in the beginning of the 1990s and today 4.4 billion people are estimated to use the internet. When internet was launched to the public a range of problems occurred for users. Spam and viruses were so common that every computer needed antivirus software. Illegal content and pornography basically took over the internet. Later major issues appeared when the old Internet Protocol called IPv4 had to be changed to IPv6 to get more internet addresses. The biggest problem is still that half of the world’s population do not have internet access. The point is that technological developments will go through problems before they are adapted to our needs. Rome was not built in a day.

It’s not easy for the crypto industry to adapt to its own rapid development. Laws and regulations in the crypto space cannot keep up. For example, recently the virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash was sanctioned and caused worries in the Ethereum ecosystem. The problem is that Tornado is an open-source software that use the Ethereum system to make it difficult to trace cryptocurrency transactions. Apparently, North Korea used Tornado Cash to launder $7 billion worth of crypto currency on the world’s second biggest blockchain Ethereum and used the money to boost their military spending. The founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin did not see that coming.

Clearly regulation and laws are an essential part of a healthy society but sanctioning a piece of open code is clearly problematic. Privacy is an important part of the crypto space and that does not mean that privacy is equal to illegal behaviour. We do not want others to know about our digital wallet or about our health data that will be stored on a blockchain in the future. We certainly cannot blame blockchain technology in general for creating software that can increase privacy. When Facebook used our internet data in questionable ways to profit, the US government tried to make sense of what they did and to enforce regulation. But we never blamed the internet for how it was used to profit from consumer data the way Facebook did.

The S curve is a way to measure how far a technology is being adopted by society. If we look at where the crypto industry is in terms of adoption in comparison to the dawn of the internet its only 1993 in the crypto space. Do you remember the first time you used Explorer to surf the internet? The S curve tells the story that the crypto space is somewhere in between the innovator and early adopters’ phase of development. Think of the adoption rate like a scale from 1 to 5 and the crypto industry is nearly in the second phase. The fact that there are more than 20000 crypto assets it’s obvious that innovators have centre stage and you and me (early adopters) see opportunities in the field, but the public remains sceptical. Crypto is like an energetic cocky teenager and growing pains are natural.

Have a great day!

Henrik

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Business & Society

A crypto boom despite price downturn

The price of Bitcoin has fallen 70% since all-time high in November 2021 and some altcoins have even had a 90% downturn. A newcomer in the crypto space might think that the industry is down for a 10 second count, but in fact the developments in the crypto industry have been significant in the last year.

Major banks consider blockchain technology a necessity to be competitive and to improve its services and to save billions. Santander claimed that banks could save 15–20 billion a year. Mastercard and Visa is in on making it possible for their customers to do crypto payments. Luxury brands are betting on the future of the metaverse. Meta opened its arms fully to the industry and has adopted the metaverse kid. Instagram has made it possible for users to show NFTs on the platform. Applepay have already taken a piece of the traditional payments pie and have created solutions for connecting crypto wallets to Applepay.

I agree. NFTs are a bit difficult to understand, but they are far more than just a jpeg image. NFTs have already had a boom in 2021 and is here to stay with innovative functions. The entertainment industry use NFTs to offer the NFT holder various forms of entertainment such as a concert or an art exhibition. Professional artist use NFTs to ensure payments and to lower the risk of forgery. NFTs are a big time business. In 2022, the sporting industry is set to earn $ 2 billion on digital collectibles, virtual access, and gaming.

Michael Sailor and his company MicroStrategy is relentless in its faith in Bitcoin and keeps on buying regardless of its downturn. Elon Musk needed cash and sold some Bitcoin and keeps on fiddling with Dogecoin and scaring the market with occasional tweets. Recently one of the world’s biggest investments managers Blackrock with its trillion-dollar purse showed up in the space and teamed up with the crypto exchange Coinbase. Although Blackrock is tight with the traditional banking sector the crypto industry cannot wait for a trillion-dollar injection. Boom!

Companies use blockchain technology to improve their services. Blockchain is a software solution to problems in various industries such as tracking and tracing products in the transportation industry. Or for securely storing private and sensitive health data. An entrepreneur could even start a crypto business to fund a shelter for animals. Anything can be programmed on the blockchain. A smart contract code can be seen as the computer saying, ”if x happens then y happens automaticaly”.

In the beginning of the year U.S President Joe Biden even signed an executive order on crypto to advance the U.S competitiveness and leadership in digital assets and crypto ecosystem.

Blockchains clearly has value for businesses and nations.

Investors believe that the crypto project has potential to increase their investments because the project can solve a problem. Sure, some crypto projects are useless and still increase in price, but the last stupid thing in universe is not yet created.

Let’s not forget that crypto is more than the price of an asset. The monetary value of the crypto market is not indicative of how far the crypto industry has come. CZ Head of the world biggest crypto exchange Binance, said it best “Price is just a reflection of mass psychology, not progress.”

Have a great day! / Henrik

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Business & Society

Crypto helping billions to get internet access

The crypto industry is changing the world. Industry by industry.

It is surprising that mainstream media ignores what is happening in the fourth industrial revolution. Sure, we hear about crypto currencies crashing and that the industry is just a hype, but never how the blockchain technology is changing the world. It’s all a scam anyway, right!?

Previous articles have mentioned the fourth industrial revolution because we need to understand the times that we are living in. It’s worth repeating that we are living in a technological revolution. Staying well-informed about the developments in society will teach us about history and give us a glimpse of the future. Obviously, we need to be aware of what is going on to be competitive as a company or a successful investor. Multiple industries are disrupted by the blockchain technology, and the trillion-dollar telco industry is a prime example.

There are a 1000 plus mobile network operators, but half of the world is still not connected to the internet. Big time players in the telco industry have tried but failed to reach more people. Even google tried but did not find a successful business model. But the hybrid mobile network named World Mobile with its blockchain technology created an interesting business model that has potential to help 3 billion in getting internet connection. The sexy part is that World Mobile has found a way for anyone to participate in supporting the network and even make money doing it. Service providers are incentivized to participate in the long-term sustainability of the world mobile network and rewarded in the crypto currency World Mobile Token. Basically, there are two ways to be involved in World Mobile services.

An entrepreneur or private entity can invest in setting up an AirNode that provides users access to the network. For example, in Africa, local entrepreneurs can work with World Mobile to set up an aerostat or a tower to strengthen the wifi-capacity of the network. Imagine investing in a floating balloon with 3G connectivity that is sent 400 yards above ground to provide internet connection for an entire village. The technology can run on solar power and is so advanced that the balloon will self-deflate if there is a storm coming and go back up when the storm has settled. It’s a win-win business idea. This technology provides internet access to those who connect to the network and the person or company that set up the hardware is paid in World Mobile Token. Yes, the tokens can be converted into traditional fiat money.

People can also choose to support the network by becoming a EarthNode operator anywhere in the world. EarthNodes have blockchain capability and function as the brain of the system and interconnects all other nodes. EarthNodes records and process all transactions that take place on the network and investors in this structure also get paid in World Mobile Token. Those who use the network to connect to internet pay for text messages, calls and data using local currency.

The tokenomics of World Mobile Token is like many other crypto projects. Those who invest or participate in the ecosystem is contributing to its growth and safety and is therefore rewarded in a crypto currency. This decentralized grass-root business model is revolutionary as it provides unique ways for small businesses to set up shop.

World Mobile is making efforts in Africa to provide internet access to remote areas and have potential to supply 3 billion people with internet connection. Now that’s what I call a valuable use case of blockchain technology.

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Business & Society

The best argument for the crypto industry

The public may say that crypto is a joke and stocks a smart investment. People may think that you are stupid for investing and discussing crypto with someone who is skeptical can be frustrating. What is the biggest argument that the crypto industry is here to stay and a valid investment?

The looks I get when I say that I am interested in crypto is telling. People frown and get quiet. Some dare to say that Bitcoin has no value and no use case at all. Sometimes I avoid the subject but occasionally I wish I had an argument for crypto that would turn a critic into a believer.

It is somewhat unimageable what is happening in our modern society and easier to stick to what we know than learning about societal developments. But we need to understand that in the age of the internet of things our existence is rapidly turning digital. Digital.

The internet of things is a global online network that is being built and it has been estimated that 30 billion devices are connected to the internet. We are clearly living online, and the fourth industrial revolution is in full force. It is completely natural that smart watches, cars, houses, lamps and even fridges are connected to the internet. If the phone is stupid and not able to connect to the internet you may not even be able to pay for parking or for public transportation. We need internet to update the electric grid, for government agencies to run smoothly, for hospitals to treat patients effectively, in military activities, for banking services and to pay for basically everything. Without internet access we are not even able to borrow a book at the library. We trust the digital age for a large part of our communication. According to my 12 years old daughter wifi is the definition of life. If you ask me, not being able to start the Facebook app is a definite up-side of an off-line existence.

Considering that the cost of cyberwarfare has quadrupled since 2015, it is clear that rouge nation states regard the internet as a corner stone of our existence and therefore a target for attacks. When the internet breaks, we break. As the age of internet of things has disrupted our way of life it is blatantly obvious that we need to fully accept that our money also needs to get digital and that new companies will blossom within the sector.

The first electronic cash system E-Cash was invented in the early 1980s. E-cash managed to collaborate with banks but went bankrupt because society was not ready for such a ground-breaking technology. At the present time we can’t imagine not being able to transfer money across the internet. The problem is that we are in between two worlds now. We have the traditional fiat system with physical cash, and we keep track of this money online. We allow banks and governments to count and control what and how much money we have. We also have the digital crypto industry that is completely online and do not need banks to count or control our digital money. The cashless society is rapidly growing, and nations are looking into a central bank digital currency that can move freely within and across borders, and we need better digital solutions for our money. Furthermore, the argument that even banks are investing in crypto currencies and blockchain technology is also good.

What’s also confusing for people is that blockchains is not just money but can be programmed with smart contracts to solve various problems. Explaining to a crypto critic that we are in the midst of a digital transformation of society, seem to be the best argument for having digital money. As we move every part of our existence to the internet it is also smart to invest in digital companies. Right!? Blockchain companies are software companies that provide various services online. It’s as straight forward as that. To someone who is investing in stocks one could say that many crypto companies are just like a traditional technology company.

Why are crypto critics afraid of something that seem straight forward? Blockchains are a software solution to a problem. Well, I understand that people are sceptical of putting our money online since personal computers basically need to update every time they start. It takes time for people to trust that code can benefit mankind to such a large extent.

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Business & Society

Is the crypto industry a threat to traditional banks?

Evolve or die is the premise of the fourth industrial revolution. Our society will change and the digital age is fundamentally changing the banking sector. But is it true that the crypto industry is a threat to the entire banking industry?

The future is now, and we are forced to adapt to the circumstances of a constantly evolving existence. Each industrial revolution had its own evolutionary path. The invention of the steam engine started as a simple water-pump machine and eventually used coal to power factories and improved mining and eventually created a vast transportation network. This process took around 200 years.

However, the fourth industrial revolution with blockchain technology is rapid in its growth. Blockchain and crypto currencies have gone mainstream in a short period of time. The most obvious industry that is affected by the crypto industry is the banking industry. Blockchain technology is changing banking fundamentals drastically and some bankers are shaking at their core and holding on to old fashion ways of doing business and spreading misinformation about the crypto space. Change is scary even for banks and offering practically nothing for storing people’s money and offering high interest rates on loans is lucrative… But the old way of doing traditional finance business is proving slow, ineffective, and expensive in comparison to using blockchain technology. More and more banks realize this.

It’s difficult to change the way banks do business as their core practice is based on being middlemen in economic transactions and blockchain technology can remove the middleman. Instead of going to the bank to transfer money to another country, people can send it directly to where it’s supposed to go by using blockchain technology. When banks use the current Swift system, every transaction needs to be recorded in the bank of each nation and every transaction needs be handled by a bank employee in each nation.

This traditional clumsy and expensive way of making cross-border transactions have seen its best days and the fintech firm Ripple is directly competing with the Swift banking system. Today hundreds of financial institutions in over 50 countries are using RippleNet to transfer money between nations and other financial services such as securities clearing and settlement, fiat currency payment and fraud deterrent. Ripple has claimed that it is not merely trying to replace Swift. It has been claimed that 38% of the world’s top 100 banks have been linked to Ripple. Researchers have claimed that “emerging technology like Ripple will eventually revolutionize the remittance industry or even other financial systems.” Zhang, R., 2019.

Moreover, the services of traditional banks are increasingly not needed as crypto assets within decentralized finance can provide interest in the form of yield for staking crypto assets and even provide loans.

But remember. Mr Bankman is no fool.

Major international banks have been openly critical about crypto currency and blockchain technology but underneath the surface they have planned to enter the market themselves. The first bank to use blockchain technology has been claimed to be Santander and JP Morgan who have been critical of the crypto industry is now suddenly the first bank to enter the Metaverse.

Bank see the future with blockchain technology. In 2021, Deloitte asked 1,280 senior banking executives and practitioners in 10 countries and found that banks that stay current with the times use blockchain technology as a competitive advantage. According to the survey, senior executives, and practitioners in the financial services sector regard digital assets as “very/somewhat important” to their industry.

The biggest hurdle for banks to fully use blockchain technology is still regulatory uncertainty and legal considerations. But this is a general problem for the entire crypto industry.

Yes, the crypto industry is a threat to the traditional banking sector. But the threat seems to be evolutionary as blockchain technology is slowly altering the core of traditional finance. The novel traits of the banking sector are being forced to adapt to the new environment of the fourth industrial revolution. In a way it’s only the fittest banks that will survive.

Have a great day! / Henrik

By the way! This is not a sponsored article if you are wondering.

Deloitte, Global Blockchain Survey 2021.

Zhang, R., et al., 2019. Ripple vs. SWIFT: Transforming Cross Border Remittance Using Blockchain Technology, Procedia Computer Science, 147:428–434.

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Business & Society

It’s healthy being a crypto sceptic

It’s healthy to be sceptic about crypto. Economic bubbles, rug pulls, irresponsible exchanges, scams and disorganized government handling of crypto laws and regulation are a part of the crypto landscape. It’s a big mess and no place for the faint-hearted. But when will the general public believe in crypto?

We have given birth to something unique but it needs to grow up before we can expect the general public to take the crypto industry seriously. It is still a child and we need to be more lenient towards antics such as rug pulls, irresponsible exchanges and scams.

It is fair to say that blockchain technology have potential to grow into something fantastic and completely change our financial system. Crypto advocates are even saying that the entire banking system may get obsolete as middle men are not needed for economic transactions if blockchain technology grows up. Sayonara Mr. Bankman. But so far we are struggling parents who don’t know how to handle this young industry. No wonder people find the industry immature and unserious when it’s confusing to buy crypto and it takes a nerd to understand how a hot or cold digital wallet works. It’s nearly impossible to turn a crypto currency into a wrapped version and sending it to the correct address before being able to buy a certain token.

What’s more, before buying crypto we need to know where to go without getting scammed and we generally must go through a gnarly KYC process that involves taking embarrassing selfies. The slow and complicated process of transferring fiat cash from our bank is annoying. The learning curve is still too steep to easily turn a sceptic into a investor. Some say that governments are trying to protect the public from scams within the ecosystem, but in reality governments need to listen more closely to the needs of the industry. A sound economic environment within a nation is created with mature conversations between entrepreneurs, key players, investors and regulatory institutions. Not even the mighty China have been successful in banning Bitcoin. The decentralized nature of Bitcoin make it difficult to control and we do not want regulation that stifle innovation but the general public needs some structure. It’s confusing in crypto.

In a desperate attempt to know who is responsible for what governments try to claim some crypto currencies are securities and that some are commodities. This painstaking process may take years and hinder the development of the fourth industrial revolution that we are in. So far lack of government regulation and laws are not making it easier for the industry to grow up. I mean who would take a kid seriously if he or she is allowed to run amok?

It gets worse.

The so called stable coins and defi projects who offer sky high yields are increasingly seen as a threat to traditional finance and we don’t know how to regulate them either. Some exchanges crash and we are left standing wondering how to control what is happening. Hopefully Simon Dixon can help.

It is a problem that the crypto industry is ground-breaking. CBDCs can be a threat to fiat money. When we consider security breaches, coins stolen from wallets and crypto crashes I am starting to wonder whether the crypto industry really is healthy. Let’s be fair. It’s a high risk asset. Highly volatile.

Sure as we learn more about crypto we see the opportunities. But crypto is mostly a joke for those who do not live in the crypto ecosystem and hear about things like Satoshi Island being built and that Saudi Arabia is investing billions in the metaverse and hoping to create 42.000 virtual jobs. Meta and Instagram is also in the game along with google who is betting big on web 3 and on NFTs. It’s happening under the surface of traditional media and people miss out on information about what is coming in the future. The future is certainly a blockchain future in some way shape or form.

But the crypto industry needs help to grow into a healthy environment. Sound regulation is needed. Clear guidelines and easy to use wallets and exchanges. Sure much has happened in the last year that is tremendous for the industry. One of the world’s largest investment management corporation Blackrock has joined forces with Coinbase to offer crypto services to clients with trillions to spend. Trillions of US dollars! The industry will likely elevate fast in next bull market which may be in about 2 years.

But I guess that the general public will not believe in the crypto market until it has settled down. Settled down in a suburb… When the market is stable and boring. When the opportunity for great returns on investment has past. When the risk is low. That’s when the general public feel safe to invest. I guess that’s healthy.

Maybe it takes a rebel in believing in crypto. I know two things for sure.

Not investing is right. Investing after doing your own research is also right.

Have a great day!

Henrik

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Business & Society

Improved health care with blockchains

We are not only living in a generational opportunity for economic transformation and growth but blockchain is also reshaping healthcare.

We are living in the fourth industrial revolution. It started with the steam engine and developed into the age of science and mass production. Then we experienced the rise of digital technology. The internet of things has developed into a revolution that is powered by information communication and technology and artificial intelligence as well as blockchains. Each new wave of technological change solves different problems and benefit the world in different ways. As a health professional I am interested in looking at what problems can be solved by blockchain in health care.

Blockchain technology has the potential to solve problems linked to trust, verification and security and the health care sector is benefiting from this technological revolution. One problem within the health care sector is data breaches where patents personal and health records are stolen. The decentralized nature of and security of blockchains make it possible for patients, doctors, and health care providers to securely share the same information. Instead of using paper or multiple different digital services health care providers can use one secure system that is updated in real time. Smart contracts are smart! By using blockchain technology health care providers can solve issues with storing and maintaining immense amounts of patient data in accordance with laws and regulations. Patient activities can be up to date which assists doctors, scientists, lab technicians in doing faster diagnoses and radically improve the quality of treatment. The patient data puzzle can be solved. Furthermore, since all changes can be tracked on a blockchain the integrity issue can be solved.

Inefficient practices in hospitals are costly and the organization and logistics at a hospital can be improved and labor cost lowered as patient data is streamlined with the use of blockchain technology. The medical supply chain is also a major benefactor. The World Health Organization claims that the black market of medicine is worth $75 billion and falsified medication and illegal data is a major problem. It has been claimed that pharmaceutical companies lose $200 billion to counterfeit drugs annually. By using a ledger, data about drugs can be tracked and traced which lowers the risk of counterfeiting and theft and increases safety and decreases supply chain problems.

There are also benefits in research and drug discovery with using the distributed ledger technology as patients’ original health records and billions of genetic data can be stored on the blockchain. Genetic databases of the future are likely built on a blockchain. AI can use data to perform predicting modeling in care. The fourth technological revolution can also help public health professionals to manage national medical emergencies. Now days medical personnel can use wearables when diagnosing patients and accelerate care that involves multiple parties. Furthermore. Payments between health care parties can be accelerated with blockchain technology.

How long it will take for the public healthcare sector in adopting this new technology fully is a guessing game, but health care companies such as Ananeer, Akiri, BurstIQ, Factom, ProCredEx and Robomed are active in solving different problems. According to Delloite 2020*, several developed nations and senior industrialists are making blockchain systems a top priority for their organizations.Things move fast in a revolution.

However, the fourth industrial revolution will not fully shape the health care industry until we have further clarity on blockchain regulations and laws.

*Deloitte, Critical Blockchain Statistics: 2021 Data Analysis & Market Share — Financesonlinecom (2020)

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Business & Society

Can crypto be a lifestyle, and why does it matter?

The crypto world has developed into much more than trading and investing. It has transformed the life of and the sense of self for millions of people. Has crypto turned into a lifestyle on its own?

Crypto can be a way of life. The crypto industry is growing a strong community of like-minded individuals sharing a dream of becoming personally and financially free. This tight-knit rebellious community sees the weakness of the fiat system and focus on the right of the individual. The villain is the faulting traditional economic system and the hero is the promise of a deflationary currency that will give the power back to the people. Hackers and fraudsters as well as traditional media that spread misinformation are also baddies that crypto fanatics can fight together. Moreover, the life, behavior and conduct of a crypto enthusiast can be way to establish a sense of self and personal identity.

Establishing a sense of self and personal identity are important building blocks for mental health and happiness in life. The crypto hype shows that many people are turning to the crypto industry to strengthen their sense of self and personal identity. There are 20 000 different digital assets that are both useful and useless and crypto enthusiasts can easily find what they believe in and identify with. For example, being part of the Cardano community can show that he or she believes in the value of a blockchain that strive to help Africans who are unbanked. Whilst owning a useless meme-coin could be a way to portray the light-mindedness and rebellious side of oneself. Many crypto aficionados start their own youtube or twitter account to become crypto influencers. Crypto fanatics discuss nerdy issues such as inflation and bitcoin halving and use slang such as OG and HODL.

OG means someone who has been in the game for many years. HODL means someone who is holding on to their digital assets regardless of the swing of the market. The industry is creating a cooler image than traditional finance which favors university education and use a strict dress code and stiff expressions. However, crypto meetups are a mix between people who dress in suits and hoodies and caps and people with various levels of education.

” Belonging to a crypto community is a way to find yourself”

The crypto industry has clearly provided an opportunity for people with different socio-economic backgrounds to create wealth and a sense of self. For example. It is interesting to hear the self-confidence in the voice of someone expressing their knowledge of macroeconomics that they have gained from joining the crypto community. Anyone can buy crypto and join a crypto community. Young and old. Uneducated or educated. Rich or poor. It’s a lifestyle for the people. If we highlight crypto as a lifestyle the industry might grow even stronger. Millions of crypto devotees can feel a sense of belonging and find increased meaning in their lives by joining the crypto space. Lives are being improved with crypto. Let’s share the stoke of riding the crypto wave.