All posts tagged: blockchain

Connected Life. How everybody, everything being online everywhere, all the time is changing our lives.

Published by Gert Christen

By 2025, we will have over 27 billion IoT devices connected to the internet – that’s more than three devices for each person living on Earth. And two-thirds of these persons own a smartphone, which makes them also constantly connected to the internet. No doubt: Everybody and everything is now online all the time. This is how a majority of us live our lives today: Connected! And enabled by technologies.  Never before has the world, its infrastructure, and the people who live here been more connected, and personalization is helping to drive tailored experiences for people while connectivity technologies are helping companies create new products, deliver better services anywhere in the world and realize efficiency gains never thought possible on a massive global scale. These innovations that were once a pipedream of human ingenuity relegated to sci-fi novels and utopian thought exercises are now our daily reality. But in creating these solutions, questions, and considerations arise. Will these technologies really enhance everyday life, and for everybody? Is the rapid growth of e.g. mobile, AI, and …

Hot Technology: Blockchain, look beyond the noise and it’s very real!

Published by Gert Christen

Every now and then a technology appears that is so intriguing that it spikes fantasies of what it is, does and all the things it might make possible: Examples are the Internet, GSM mobile telephony, or social media. And no doubt, Blockchain is such a technology, too: Oh, the hype and oh, the claims of all that it will do, and oh, the fears of all it will replace: Agencies, banks, currencies, jobs, “everything!” While the fantasies run wild with every up and down of cryptocurrency prices, these are just one use of Blockchain technology. I observe something completely different: Away from the noise and hype, Blockchain has matured into a solid IT technology that is used to solve previously unsolvable problems and produces increasingly novel applications. And the Blockchain startup scene is alive and kicking. Here are two use cases of Blockchains that exemplify this: SyraCoin, citizens crowd-fund city services in exchange for tokens. By City of Syracuse, NY and VITE.org. Citizens of Syracuse, NY, can now donate money to help out other citizens …

Digigram Newsletter of July 2019!

Published by Gert Christen

Thank you Thank you to the more than 4000 of you who saw my first Digigram. I am surprised, delighted and very humbled. And I appreciate all of you who gave me your comments and feedback, I will try to incorporate them. Please enjoy a wonderful summer, happy reading and ‘till soon, Gert Explore Digigram – July 2019 Hot Technology: Blockchain, look beyond the noise and it’s very real! New trend: XaaS stands for everything as a service! Top of the Month Congratulations to Scoot, a pioneer in the electric moped rental space, for the acquisition by Bird, the electric scooter rental heavyweight. Meet me here: Meet me in Berkeley from next month. I am excited to have been appointed an Entrepreneurship Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. I wanted to continue to teach part-time ever since moving back to California and I couldn’t be happier to do it in Berkeley. Check out my first course here! What’s on my table? Summer reading: “Make Elephants Fly. The process of radical innovation” by Steven S. …

Update on the State of the Digital Revolution – Resistance (still) Futile and Unnecessary

Published by Gert Christen

Two years ago I wanted to raise awareness for the digital revolution and its influence on our lives. So I invited digital startups as “Digital Lifestyle Showcases” to Startupfair. What has happened since? Did new digital technologies change our lives for the better? Or are there reasons to be scared of the oncoming digital tsunami? Time to assess for an update: Digital technologies indeed started solving some previously unsolvable problems. Digital technologies have matured from standalone concepts to integral parts of real world applications. Some of the Startupfair showcases already transformed their field, many have grown into respectable businesses. What I didn’t see coming: Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain as new two powerful enabling technologies.   “Today’s confluence of new digital technologies, new devices and people’s lifestyle preferences is a revolution and offers vast opportunities for innovation, new businesses, and a better life”, is how I started my post two years ago. And fundamentally nothing has changed: Moore’s law continues to advance miniaturization, which in turns allows for ever smaller devices with ever larger capabilities! And with this, new digital technologies are being adopted by more and more users for many different applications. …

The Future of Currency – According to UBS Y Think Tank

Published by Gert Christen

The Swiss Fintech Association produced a video from the event at BlueLion Incubator, where the UBS Wealth Management Think Tank “UBS Y” kicked off their research into: “What currency will we use in the future?”. UBS Y explained their research methodology publicly for the first time that evening. And the guests attending got to use the methodology to give input to the New Currency Theme. This crowdsourcing approach resulted in over 50 inputs for the UBS Y team. A first digest of the evenings findings can be found here. Thank you Marcus Iofcea, Head of the UBS Y Think Tank, for sharing the unique way in which you look into the future of banking. Thanks to you John Hucker of the Swiss Fintech Association and to the team of BlueLion for organizing the event.