From Goldman Sachs to Blockchain
Introduced to us in class today, I thought it incredibly relevant that Blockchain hired former Goldman Sachs executive as head of institutional sales and strategy. Blockchain technology is an innovative technology developed as part of Bitcoin, the digital currency. Most people know or have heard of Bitcoin and its infamously fickle trend and the hype, but I personally did not know about Blockchain. As presented in the class video, it is a technology that can be used for a wide variety of applications to ensure consensus in process, supply chain visibility, and consistent information among peer-to-peer networks.
With Madigan joining the crypto currency world, it is strongly indicative of the direction and innovation that the business world and supply chains will progress. Interestingly, Goldman Sachs had already been delving and exploring blockchain in its transactions and business model. This could be the background that Madigan has which qualified her for her present role at Blockchain. Goldman Sachs states that “the technology is still new, but its potential is enormous,” and that “blockchains establish trust, they provide a simple, paperless way to establish ownership of money, information and objects.” As head of institutional sales and strategy, Madigan is planning to go full force with the company to integrate into business transactions in a multitude of industries. This service is revolutionary in the respect that it establishes a trust and secures transactions. However, it does have its cons in which that it could be costly to train, attain, and integrate the technology in many industries or businesses. Although technology has always progressed and developed at a rapid pace, the adaptation to use it and develop trust has always lagged behind. Hopefully, Madigan’s presence can help Blockchain solidify its image and reputation as a trustworthy service and integrate into business cores. In fact, it’s been claimed that in addition to her expertise, her role at Blockchain depends on her reputation and attracting big-name institutional clients.
It certainly is interesting to see how this service could be manifested in the future. Potentially, all supply chains could utilize this technology from moving money to making sure products and information is transported globally. Are there any examples that you can think of that involve or could involve Blockchain? Do you foresee yourself using Blockchain?
http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sacs-executive-joins-blockchain-startup-crypto-bitcoin-2018-4
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/17/blockchain-cryptocurrency-wallet-hires-top-goldman-sachs-exec.html
It is interesting to see how this blockchain company Blockchain Ltd has hired a former Goldman Sachs executive as a head of institutional sales and strategy. Their main hope of adding her is to attract institutions to their company. I think this is a good idea for Blockchain, because in order for this company to be successful and blockchain as a whole to work, they need to gain users. The banking industry is an industry that can greatly benefit from the blockchain technology and the fact that they have hired a former employee of a well renowned bank may be good for Blockchain gaining the trust of banks. Some banks have headed into the direction of using blockchain technology in their banks already. Banco Santander has launched an app with Ripple, a cryptocurrency, this app enables users to make transfers between currencies in the USA and Europe. Banks as a whole may trend towards using cryptocurrency to easily make exchanges between currencies and also to keep a running ledger through blockchain services as we have said in class, this is one of the more interesting developments in the financial industry today (https://www.investopedia.com/news/ripple-santander-launch-app-intl-transfers/)
Technology of course continues to enhance and affect every sector across our modern economy. Throughout the past decade, the financial services industry has been one of the most severely affected. High frequency trading, quantitative algorithms, and electronic trading platforms have reduced the need for human capital at financial companies and banks. Blockchain’s infusion into modern banking and money transactions continues this trend of the modernization of the banking industry. Blockchain allows information to digitally be distributed rather than copied. Accordingly, there could be repercussions to incorrect distribution measures. In other words, with the digital landscape, there is always the chance for a computing mistake, which could be very severe and devastating as money is involved. There have been recent incidences of errors with the transferring of Bitcoin or hacking of the services. I am nervous for such a rapid acceleration of the Blockchain’s network because of these common errors. When humans are utilized for such transactions, there are regulations in place that keep poor behavior in check. I think as technology continues to get involved in our financial system, the SEC and other regulatory bodies need to contribute direct oversight so that nothing overwhelming happens to our financial sector due to adopting this sort of financial technology too abruptly. Still, I strongly believe that the utilization of such a decentralized network that cuts out the middleman and reduces costs will be very beneficial if implemented appropriately.
Source: https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/
I agree that blockchain and technology in general offers a wide variety of ways to better businesses and supply chains. However, I don’t think describing it as “simple” is fair. Technology is intricate, hackable (as we’ve seen in the news numerous times) and not always reliable to work correctly. Therefore I’m not sure if I trust it right now in its early stages to be a user of Blockchain myself.
I decided to do some research on what Blockchain technology is because, just like Bitcoin, it is supperrrr confusing and just way over my head. When reading about it I learned that it has many positive attributes and but one of the most intriguing things I discovered is that it is governed by multiple people and not just one central authority. This multi-dimensional management system makes the technology very hard to tamper with, giving it a built in layer of protection that most other databases don’t have. Aside from its role in cryptocurrency it has the potential to be used to maintain a variety of information, specifically as an electronic voting system. While it has seriously exciting potential there are some serious considerations before companies should adapt the program.Transaction speed is a main issue with lots of time being spent verifying the different blocks in a chain. Bitcoin’s average transaction time at its worst exceeded 41 hours and currently Ethereum takes about 15 seconds. Even though it doesn’t sound like a lot, 15 seconds adds up every time you want to change a database entry. Overall I think with some continuous updates and improvements it will have a very positive impact on supply chain management and operations. I am excited to see its adoption into more big name companies and see how it performs.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/what-is-a-blockchain/
Sarah, I find it interesting that you decided to mention the costly factors of Blockchain as one “con”. You say, “that it could be costly to train, attain, and integrate the technology in many industries or businesses”. Although I agree with you, I will say that the costs of implementing a new process or producing a new product is always going to be costly at first. As we learned from class, the benefits of supply chain visibility outweigh the costs that are spent to make the changes to the supply chain. Blockchain helps produce supply chain visibility at a much broader level and will begin to demonstrate its benefits after a couple years of being in place. Therefore, I argue that business should become involved in Blockchain as it helps promote honesty and trust within its supply chain and also for its customers. I think that honesty in its ethical practices will benefit customers more than cause them to run away to find cheaper prices. People, like myself, want to know that I am truly buying what I am paying for. I want to know how it got there, where it came from, how it was made, and if the company is honestly staying true to the morals and standards it advertises. People will pay more if they are explicitly shown its quality, honesty, and consistency.
I agree that it will be very interesting to see the many ways that block chain can affect our current supply chains. I think the way in which it can be used in money transfers and may disrupt the banking industry is incredibly important. Currently most transactions that are not made with cash require there to be an institutional intermediary that will charge some form of transaction fee. With blockchain we could see this become a fact of the past. Given that transactions are secured and verified by using a network of computers there may no longer be the need for these institutions to charge their fees. I also think that it is interesting that a previous executive from Goldman Sachs is now working for block chain and I will be fascinated to see how she might disrupt her previous industry.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/03/23/how-blockchain-will-transform-the-supply-chain-and-logistics-industry/#1ea67a545fec