Strong, Mad, Credible.
I was asked to write an article for City A.M.’s Crypto A.M. about blockchain, crypto and digital assets. I was honoured, the only people to ask me to write for them were my teachers!
I asked how many words, 1000 words I was told. I was unsure if I could write that much about blockchain, crypto and digital assets while keeping your interest. Therefore I decided to fill this article with as much hyperbole as possible to distract you from the truth, which is that I don’t know that much about the industry. Now I have confessed I can do away with my plan of exaggeration, I have to be very specific and accurate in everything I write. This is a problem, I don’t know much about the industry and you will be left short changed with a short article.
If I don’t know much about the industry why on earth have I agreed to write an article? And how on earth did I get to be considered knowledgeable to write the article in the first place? In answer to agreeing to write the article, I thought if I invest the time I can put something decent together. In answer to being asked to write the article I believe I must be credible if they think I’m knowledgeable. What else can the reason be? That must be it. It has taken serious commitment over time to build meaningful relationships for others to consider me credible. Close relationships are created through trust, keeping one’s word, honouring one’s intentions, no cheating, et cetera. We all know this social contract well. One application of blockchain is that it enforces social contracts, which is the big attraction.
Building credibility is fundamental while fighting to establish a new industry, our industry. The old Wild Wild West was full of bandits, gold diggers and pioneers, it attracted all sorts and challenged the toughest men and women. Only the strong and the mad would go there. We, ladies and gentlemen, are strong or mad. We are out there, in the new wild. The mad ones want 100× financial returns, shouting “Bitcoin to the moon”, with outrageous marketing that influences the vulnerable. Thankfully, this is becoming less possible as our industry matures. The strong are less vocal but confident they’re building the infrastructure and ecosystem that’s converting the digital world into the trust world. This confidence comes from an unconventional truth; we are building a new system that is inherently good for society because it is fair, inclusive and guarantees trust. This is pioneering.
I am harsh on myself when I say I know little about our industry. I am part of our industry, an advocate for our industry but I just don’t have the deep technical knowledge of how to program a smart contract or the like. That’s fine, we have millions of blockchain developers and that should grow by 100×. What can I offer? I understand people and build strong relationships that are based on trust and credibility. I offer a social contract that my word is my bond. It’s a life choice. I feel it in my bones but had good hard lessons along the way. Let me tell you a personal story. I told my twin daughters (currently 15 years old) all their lives they can always trust their Dad because their Dad will never lie to them (difficult I know). One day when they were 10 they caught me smoking a cigarette (damn). I denied it (first mistake). A few days later I asked them why they weren’t talking to me. They responded asking me if I was smoking the other day (ah, right). I asked them if they saw me (thinking I was clever). They said no. I said I wasn’t smoking (big mistake). They said they saw me (scheisse!). They wouldn’t speak to me for 6 months. I did not see them for 6 months. That nearly broke me. Extreme some might think, ‘good on them’ others will think. I broke and lost their trust for the first time. I failed them. I hurt them. I broke more than my social contract. I was not credible anymore.
We need trust and credibility. More than that, our industry needs an abundance of energy, commercial knowledge and ideas to solve many challenges we face, from economic to environmental. As humans at the top of the food chain we are designed to evolve through problem solving, survival of the fittest and all that. We need people in our industry to work with all types of problem solvers that are trusted, credible and get shit done; biologists, designers, doctors, economists, financiers, labourers, lawyers, lords, leaders, operators, teachers, writers, and this is by no means an exhaustive list. I was unsure if I should include politicians above, so out of fairness I decided to include them here as they have a tough job and we need more good ones.
What is this social contract that is relevant? The purpose of blockchain is that it’s more than a technology, it’s an architecture, a framework that can enforce agreements and laws between people, companies, organisations and governments. Is this the new framework for good? It is liberating to know that any social or financial contract can be created, enforced, adopted and trusted. When we get consensus on issues that affect us, we invest our resources in building new systems and rewarded because change will last. This is where we all lost out before, the unsustainability of commitments and promises when few bad actors have power and self interest. The future offers sustainable trust because we build trust through digital systems that binds contracts and compels commitment. This offers long term peace to much of the world’s contentious items. Saviours they will call us? Maybe not.
In our industry we have some great companies that are focusing on advancing the industry by creating financial infrastructure, protection and value added services in a new smarter way. At the same time many stakeholders need to be educated and convinced the new way is better. For example, consider a company that I admire very much, Koine, who are seasoned banking professionals that were and are central to the banking evolution. Koine is using their experience with strong relationships (aka trust and credibility) in traditional banking to educate peers and collectively create a new version of the future. Koine is not just about digital asset custody, they are combining custody and settlement of digital assets, setting the new industry standard.
We, blockchain, crypto and digital assets, need more successful FinTechs like Koine to build on the thriving ecosystem in the UK if we are going to lead globally. We need more financial capital in early stage startups and we need more human capital to think logically and radically. We need more big ideas creating market solutions that challenges the traditional power structures.
Where do we start? We start with being credible.
Neil Staunton, Founder, Crypton
neil@crypton.ai