Zag To The Zig #12 :: Chinese persuasive tech, blockchain meets law and much more
One thing I did last week was give a talk for the amazing people at Coderdojo. Coderdojo is a huge group of volunteers who teach kids about programming. At their annual inspiration event, I was invited to talk to them about why blockchain would be worth keeping an eye on.
What an organisation and what a bunch of people! So I’m very proud to get this badge of honour!
In the Tech Room
Talking about blockchain, if you read one thing this week, let it be this simple, yet poignant piece on the naivety of blockchain being the final settlement layer. Hold on! This comes from Ryan Sean Adams, who is a huge believer in Ethereum and Decentralised Finance (and runs the excellent Bankless newsletter). So it’s even more refreshing that someone like him gives a bit more context about the role of non-technical and legacy settlement systems. Think legal, but also think violence. 🧊🔥🧊
We think too shallowly. That a better cryptography can stop a $5 wrench attack. We get lost in the tech.Some governments will be anti-crypto, some of them will want to position themselves as benevolent to attract business/talent,… The German parliament passed a bill allowing banks to sell and store cryptocurrencies.
I always appreciate Benedict Evans’ no-nonsense insights and analysis of tech development. Especially because he’s a Silicon Valley investment type. His rather blunt view on 5G: unless you work in a few very narrow niches, you shouldn’t spend much time thinking about it.
In the ethics corridor
This American study around people’s attitudes towards privacy tells me the narrative around data collection is changing. From ‘I have nothing to hide’ (very silly but real) to a whopping 81% who ‘believe the risks of data collection outweigh the benefits’.
After 10 months of tweaking, Tim Berners-Lee and a team of collaborators published a Contract For The Web, calling governments, citizens and companies to sign up to some key principles. See if you want to endorse it (it does take a few clicks to get to the PDF of the full contract).
In the Economy room
The incentive economy meets programmable money (aka tokens + smart contracts). None other than investment firm Fidelity captures their strict rules around employee rewards in a token format.
This new trust study in the UK mapped trusted professions. Politicians - almost obviously - at the bottom. But only just beaten by advertising executives! Also shocking: trust in journalists is lower than in estate agents!
Random ZTTZ
Now, this is persuasive tech. These Chinese experiments are taking the design mantra ‘Design for wanted behaviour’ one step further.