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The Ingenesist Project: Making Money

Nobel Economist Robert Solow calculated that 80% of economic growth is the result of advances in technology. This Makes sense. Technology makes us more productive.

However, GDP measures the products, not the producers. Engineers, Scientists, and Technologists are responsible for ideation, design, and implementation of new and improved technology.

Unfortunately, Engineers, Scientists and Technologists are classified as “intangibles” Intangibles are, in turn, classified as expenses to be minimized, not investment to be maximized.

Here’s the good news… 80% of the true global economy is simply hidden from view. Trillions upon trillions of dollars are sitting on the table waiting to be measured into existence. Can you see it?

The Ingenesist Project uses game theory, blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence to convert Intangible Assets into a tangible form.

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Analysis

The purpose of this video is to synthesize the simplest interpretation of value and test that against prevailing economic principals. Engineers, scientists and technologists are treated as EXPENSES, let that sink in. If they are not assets, then they are LIABILITIES… full stop. This is a clear, present and vastly consequential flaw that must be addressed by someone somewhere.

Otherwise, if there is no institution willing or able to defend this flawed economic principal, then it is super-vulnerable to disruption. We need to maximize innovation, not minimize innovation. There needs to be a wholistic and systemic approach to solving problems in the world. We must head off global systemic risks. As clever and experienced as the VC community is, they cannot be expected to pick and choose winners and losers in the next economic paradigm.

There is far more ‘money to be made’ by shifting engineers, scientists, and technologists to the ASSET column of the global balance sheet.

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An Invisible Economy

By Admin

An Invisible Economy: The Ingenesist Project

A firefighter is worth millions of dollars per hour preserving lives and property… but only when there is a fire. A Fire Protection Engineer can design thousands of buildings that will never burn.

In the absence of a fire, the true value of the Scientists, Engineers, and Technologists is invisible. But the value of their economic contribution continues to persist.

What if we could measure the true value of intangible assets into present value existence. A massive new asset class would be unlocked.

The Ingenesist Project uses Game Theory, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence to convert intangible assets into tangible form, at scale. There is no shortage of money, only a shortage of imagination.

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Analysis

The purpose of this video is to demonstrate how engineers, scientists, and technologists remove RISK from complex systems. Risk is directly correlated to “return” and, therefore, profits.

So what happens to all of that value that a single diligent engineer creates when they remove all of the risk? Is it paid to the engineer? no. Is it returned to the non-victims of the calamity averted? no. Is captured by the the banking system as some form of arbitrage? Yes, absolutely, yes.

This is the deep dark secrets of finance. Don’t let the engineers, scientists, and technologists know that they are paid 2-20% of what they are worth. They may want free stuff like healthcare, job security, or royalties, or else they’ll go build something else that pays better social dividends. Can’t have that.

Obviously the question becomes, what happens when there are no more engineers to eliminate risk? There is a tipping point and we are dangerously close to approaching it. These things are easy to measure, assess, and resolve but there needs to be an institution able to secure material facts and assert the economics of those facts.

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A Tiny Flaw

By Admin

A Tiny Flaw. The Ingenesist Project

What if there was a tiny and nearly imperceptible flaw in Market Capitalism that could be easily corrected? To do so would solve many of society’s most pressing needs without disrupting the institutions upon which we depend.

Technological change must always precede economic growth. We are going about the business of civilization as if economic growth must always precede technological change. It’s like driving a car while looking through a mirror. In other words, money is not the cause of innovation. Money is the result of innovation. The implications of this tiny flaw impacts everything from Climate Change and Social Equity to Venture Capital and Global Debt.

It started with classical economic theory. In the 1700’s economic inputs such as Land, Labor, and Capital were easy to measure. The products that resulted from these inputs were also easy to measure. However, in the 1700’s; social, creative, and intellectual inputs by humans were not so easy to measure. Accountants call them intangibles, but they are simply “invisibles”.

Today, this is an easier problem to solve. Ironically, technological Change has brought us new ways to measure intangible assets. All we need to do is convert them to a tangible form. The resulting economic growth will far exceed global debt because there is no such thing as “not enough money to innovate”. Together we can correct A Tiny Flaw

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Analysis

This is largely the initial video in the series and the first that we published. Attention should be drawn to the idea that maybe there is a tiny flaw that can be easily corrected. Instead of trying to solve every single problem that is strangling civilization as we know it, we could solve one single problem and the other problems will solve themselves.

The question becomes: are we too vested in our misery to even consider such a possibility? Are we so narcissistic to believe that our particular problem is the one that must be solved even if it worsens someone else’s problem? Are we all expecting the “other guy” to change and that will make your world work? Good luck with that.

The flaw is no tiny, so hidden, yet so obvious that it defies the imagination. All we need to do is measure ourselves differently. Who is stopping us from doing this? nobody. What law says we can’t do this? There is none. And if we do correct the flaw, who suffers? No one.

Will we do it?

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A Knowledge Inventory System

By Admin

A Knowledge Inventory System; The Ingenesist Project

Have you ever wondered why the credits at the end of a movie are printed so small and scroll by so fast? The credits are not there for your benefit. The credits exist for the benefit of the movie industry.

Film production is a highly intellectual, creative, and social enterprise. In other words, Hollywood is denominated by knowledge assets. The rolling credits serve as a knowledge asset inventory system for all things needed to make the next movie.

Everything revolves around being on the credits or being known by people on the credits. This is how people find each other. The rolling credits make this possible. Not unlike a blockchain, in order to cheat the system, one must alter every instance of the celluloid reel or digital file.

Engineering, science and technology are also social, creative, and intellectual industries fueled by knowledge assets. Not unlike a blockchain, engineering processes are irreversible and immutable.

When we look at a sturdy bridge, or magnificent structure, or a brilliant piece of software, there is no easy way to find the people who are responsible for a specific element of that work. The Ingenesist Project uses game theory, blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence to create a knowledge asset inventory so that Engineers, Scientists, and Technologists can find each other.

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Analysis

Engineering and science have long been compared to the Arts as a creative profession. The point of this video is to demonstrate how other creative professions deal with the intangibles gap. While the Hollywood system has its own set of pros and cons, the comparison is worthwhile. Notably, the arts often compensate creators with “royalties” while engineering, science, and technology most often pay hourly wages.

In addition, there are comparably fewer barriers, silos, or human resource management hurdles to navigate for artists. They don’t attempt to reduce a 4-dimensional performance down to a 2-dimensional CV/resumé. Instead, they can submit the 4D performance as their resumé. A great deal of efficiency is retained.

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An Algorithm For Innovation

By Admin

An Algorithm For Innovation; The Ingenesist Project

A useful definition allows people to identify, replicate, or measure the subject being defined. Yet the best definition we have for Innovation is basically, “You know it when you see it”.

How can we sustain our world if we cannot even define the sole instrument of change?

Have you ever had an epiphany? That ah-ha moment that comes from deep within… …when suddenly your knowledge about something grows exponentially within a very short period of time? Let’s call that “innovation”, where one large innovation is comprised of many smaller innovations.

In order to measure innovation, all you need to do is measure the rate of change of knowledge with respect to time. You don’t need Calculus to recognize this as an algorithm for innovation … but it helps.

If that idea doesn’t change the world, nothing will.

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Analysis

Innovation is a great mystery that does not need to be. Everyone innovates – it is necessary for survival. Yet the magic and mystique of the innovator is a cultural phenomenon that forms the foundation of tech social status. Innovation is denominated in money – if you are not flush with cash, then you are not an innovator. Only VC can be innovators due to their ability to navigate financial markets. It almost seems that the more difficult it is to identify something, greater scarcity can be assigned to it. With greater scarcity come greater value. Again, when we become vested in our own misery, progress grinds to a halt.

This is all quite counter productive.

The problems of the future will require innovation, creation, new ideas, and vast execution at an astonishing scale. In order to achieve true economic sustainability, we need to a metric to denominate true value, not propped up scarcity value.

It is relatively easy to create and measure where high rates of change are occurring in a community or society. It is then relatively easy to observe what innovations take place as a result. This isn’t exactly a unicorn farm, but you probably can’t have a unicorn without these conditions in the first place. It is then only a matter of memorializing these conditions in a tangible form.

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Dividends of Innovation

By Admin

The Dividends of Innovation

Innovation is not linear Modern civilization did not begin 10,000 years ago with 250 Trillion dollars sitting in a box somewhere in the desert.

Money was measured into existence as a function of the things that scientists, engineers, and technologists built. Innovations such as the wheel, wedge, and lever came long before the invention of International Trade Agreements Innovations in machinery, transportation and energy enabled advances in sanitation, healthcare, and computers

Yet, the wheel, wedge, and lever are more important and more widely applied than ever. Wouldn’t it make more sense if we developed a monetary system backed by the dividends of innovation rather than the gravity of debt?

The Ingenesist Project uses game theory, blockchain, and artificial intelligence to measure the true economic contribution of engineers, scientists, and technologists.

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Analysis

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How It Works

By Admin

How It Works; The Ingenesist Project

The Ingenesist Project Uses Game Theory, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence to convert intangible assets to a more tangible form.

Part One: Observe The game is based on a system of claims and validations among a population of players.

Part Two: Measure Blockchain acts like a giant datalogger that captures time-value data of game transactions.

Part 3: Predict The Percentile Search Engine predicts the likelihood various combinations of players would produce novel outcomes.

These three applications acting together create a virtuous circle that converts intangible assets into a more tangible form. Join The Ingenesist Project

Analysis

In almost every video, we make the statement that The Ingenesist Project uses game theory, blockchain, and AI to make intangible assets more tangible. This sounds pretty complicated, so how do you explain it in under a minute? The audience deserves to know how we intend to deliver on the promises that we are making.

The answer to this, and almost every engineering or scientific problem, boils down to making observations, measuring outcomes, and predicting future results. The same should be true here.

We’ve also stated that engineers remove risk from complex systems. Risk assessment follows a similar sequence; first you need to identify the risk exposure, then you need predict the likelihood it will manifest, then you need to measure the consequences of the event.

The game sets things into motion, the blockchain records the motion, and the AI reads the recorded motion and predicts the next point on the curve.

So what may seem like a very complicated and jargon laden geek storm is actually an extremely simply set of tasks that almost everyone already practices in the professional lives. Why reinvent the wheel?

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Network Effects

By Admin

Network Effects: The Ingenesist Project

To borrow from a famous quote: “Uber, owns no vehicles… Google and Facebook create no content… Alibaba holds no inventory… Airbnb owns no real estate….” But they have a combined value of almost 3 Trillion dollars. This is very interesting.

Whereas most companies are priced according to strict financial performance, Network platforms provide a virtual bridge that connects people to each other. They are priced proportional to the square of the number of human connections they serve.

This is known as Metcalfe’s Law of Network Value. If network platforms create a virtual bridge connecting people, why can’t we value real bridges using Metcalfe’s law? Why can’t we value roads, airports, buildings and all manner of engineering, scientific, and technological infrastructure as proportional to the connections they serve?

The Ingenesist project uses game theory, blockchain, and artificial Intelligence to convert intangible assets into a more tangible form. Join The Ingenesist Project

Analysis

We often say that Engineers, Scientists, and technologists need only to measure themselves differently in order to become “more tangible”. Most people’s eyes glaze over as if we’re living in some fantasy world. This video demonstrates that principal exactly as it happens with network platforms that are popping up everywhere around us. Really, we’re not making this up.

Metcalfe’s law arose from the telecommunications industry to measure the utility of telephone connections. The value of the network grows exponentially with the number of points in contact. Let’s start by saying that telephone networks themselves are a creation of engineering and scientific professions.

The engineering value of a bridge is equal to it’s replacement cost – so that’s what they pay engineers to create one. However, the economic value of the bridge includes every transaction, truck delivery, soccer game, doctor appointment, and math class that resulted from the ability for 10,000 people per day to cross the river.

Facebook, Google, Alibaba, AirBnB, et al, could not exist if they were valued according to their replacement cost. Imagine what amazing works of engineering, science, and innovation are non-existant today only because it is valued incorrectly.

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Risk And Return

By Admin

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Risk and Return

As the saying goes, money makes the World go around. This may not be entirely true.

Where risk is high, the cost of money is high. Where risk is low, the cost of money is low. Engineers, scientists, and technologists specialize in removing risk from complex systems. So, why is there never enough money to mitigate the world’s most pressing risks?

Fortunately, all we need to do is reorganize engineers, scientists, and technologists and the money will surely follow

The Ingenesist Project uses game theory, blockchain technology, and Artificial Intelligence to reorganize the engineering and scientific professions.

Analysis

This video poses a legitimate question. If there is money to be made by mitigating risk, why are Engineers, Scientists, and technologists classified as expenses (liabilities), and not assets on global balance sheets?

It’s amazing how vested we are in this staggering little flaw in market Capitalism.

Key Phrase: Risk and Return

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The Innovation Standard

By Admin

The Innovation Standard: The Ingenesist Project

Solving the problems of the future will require humans to innovate at an astonishing rate… … far greater than anything our existing economic system can support. In order to achieve this, there must be a fundamental shift in how knowledge assets are measured, curated, and exchanged.

Today, a traditional bank distributes money backed by your promise of FUTURE productivity. Innovation is also a promise backed by FUTURE productivity. Two currencies backed by the same underlying asset are readily convertible.

In the future, an Innovation Bank, would issue currency backed directly by the true value of innovation. All we need to do is measure ourselves differently.

The Ingenesist Project uses game theory, blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence to convert intangible assets into a more tangible form.

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Analysis

The Innovation Standard is a reference to the Gold Standard or the Debt Standard, or the Oil Standard, etc. Whatever the standard, it needs to represent human productivity or else nobody would work in exchange for it (think about that for a sec).

The problems that face the world are global and they are systemic. That means that free markets technically don’t exist and the next thing that needs to be produced is the thing that society needs. Sure everyone wants a new Lambo, but it’s not very useful if the roads are too rough to drive it. Sure.Bitcoin is awesome but it’s contingent on a reliable energy grid. Sure, I love AI and much as the next geek but who’s going to read my content if they lack education to act on it?

Money as we know it just does not move fast enough. It does not represent the true productivity of Moms and Dads, soccer coaches, engineers, Scientists, teachers, and event organizers. Money needs to be produced as thenet sum of productive human behaviors. People know what problem needs to be solved next and if you give them the tools to fix things, they will.

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The Law of Nurture

By Admin

On November 22, 2023

Competition is one way of arriving at the optimal solution to a problem. Some call it the “Law of Nature”, survival of the fittest – where the final score can only be One to Zero. Unfortunately, in order to feed the winner, we must cultivate suitable losers. Evolution is slow and inefficient as a business optimization tool.

The laws of Nature provide infinitely more examples of collaboration than competition. Even if one player does not win today, their capacity to innovate remains to continuously improve the game for everyone later … if we let them.

The Ingenesist Project uses game theory, blockchain, and artificial intelligence to convert intangible assets into a more tangible form. Join The Ingenesist Project

Analysis:

This video acknowledges the value of competition as a solution optimization tool. So competition is not being called into question. However, a different problem involves preserving the knowledge, innovation, and wisdom that was created in the act of competition so that they can be developed in future or tangential problem solving environments.

Economics is the science of incentives which invariably invokes the discipline of game theory. we do have complete control over how a game is played, how players are preserved (or destroyed) and how equity is distributed. As such, we have complete control over the sustainability of the game which is ultimately in the best interest of everyone.

The conclusion is that a game which maximizes the health and welfare of the players ultimately maximizes the value of the game.

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A Virtuous Circle

By Admin

On November 21, 2023

A Virtuous Circle:

A bank won’t lend money to a project that is not insured. An insurance company will not underwrite a project that is not properly engineered. Engineering projects need to be financed to cover the cost of design and construction.

This is the Virtuous Circle of economic development. If any part of this cycle is broken, incomplete or corrupted, economic development fails.

Financial institutions simply issue paper receipts called “Money” to represent the actual things that engineers, scientists, and technologists create.

Money is, in fact, the intangible asset and engineering is the tangible asset! We’ve gotten it backwards.

When a virtuous circle reverses itself, it becomes a vicious circle. This is where we are today Fortunately, this is an easier problem to solve. The Ingenesist Project uses Game Theory, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence to reverse this vicious circle.

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Analysis:

The purpose of this video is to introduce the big picture of how the Innovation Bank will integrate with existing financial networks to make the production cycle more efficient and more responsive to systemic risk.

The point of this video is to isolate the idea that our global economy is an interrelated system with 3 critical components that must be integrated and operating at peak efficiency in order for the economy to serve global citizens equitably.

The challenges of the future will require humans to innovate at an astonishing rate – far more rapidly than our current financial system can support. There is no way that Venture Capital – our current “best bet” – can respond to the speed, breadth, and depth of technological change.

The problem ahead is systemic risk. It is not possible for a collection of competing VC to pick the winners and the losers of the next economic paradigm. Unintentionally, the the VC system may cause more damage than good.

This idea is useful for when we introduce the game, blockchain, and AI components – the blockchain serves as a check valve that allows the virtuous circle to spin in only one direction. The game mechanics provide the energy to keep the virtuous circle spinning in the right direction, Augmented Intelligence will help identify what components of the system are operating optimally so that innovation can be applied correctly.

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Decentralization Of Engineering, Science, and Technology

By Admin

On November 4, 2023

Decentralization is the rallying cry of the Blockchain Movement.

Few people realize that the Science, Engineering, and Technology professions are already decentralized. Unlike Banking and Finance, there are no all-powerful incumbents that must be vanquished. And the laws of Nature already apply to everyone.

Instead, Scientists, Engineers, and Technologists are contained by innumerable silos that have little to do with the Natural Laws We are segregated by jurisdiction, academia, ontology, corporations, politics, Trade Groups, Societies, international borders, and much more.

We represent 5% of the workforce but are responsible for 80% of economic growth. But collectively, we are weak, disorganized and powerless to prioritize the needs of our World. The only thing standing in our way, is ourselves. This is a much different problem than decentralization.

The Ingenesist Project uses Game Theory, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence to remove the silos that divide us.

Analysis:

The single point of this video was to introduce the distinction that a centralized institution and a collection of compartmentalized institutions may have similar characteristics to the participants, but are not the same thing. The former is far more difficult to disrupt while the latter is entirely vulnerable to disruption. This represents a huge opportunity for those who can see the distinction.

This idea plays a central role in the execution of The Innovation Bank. Where many see a stone wall of resistance to change, there may actually exists a paper veneer.

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A Tale From The Crypto

By Admin

On October 20, 2023

Have you ever wondered why a soccer goal has a net? The purpose of the net is to provide a visual contrast so that 50,000 observers can immediately reach a consensus that something very important has happened.

After that, a digital token is awarded to the team that scored a goal. The digital token also secures valuable business intelligence like game strategy, player stats, league standings, revenue, and everything else.

However, the consensus is by far the most important part. With the consensus, a player can make a lot of money. Without the consensus, they are invisible. With the consensus, the community can invest in a new stadium. Without the consensus, we can only play at the school yard. With the consensus, the economy flourishes. Without the consensus, it fails.

Lots of crypto projects have these same pieces. But mostly, they are mixed up. The Ingenesist Project uses Game Theory, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence to secure community consensus.

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The Tip of the Iceberg

By Admin

On September 20, 2023

The Invisible Economy:

Nobel Laureate Dr. Robert Solow calculated that 80% of economic growth can be attributed to technological change. This is the domain of engineers, scientists, and technologists. Accordingly, knowledge assets and their derivatives are not actually “intangible” but rather, they are simply invisible and unable to be measured directly. Like the proverbial “tip of the iceberg” the visible part of the economy is supported by the invisible assets below the surface.

True to form, emerging technology now offers us the ability to quantify this vast reservoir of value. We now have the opportunity to unlock an economy many times larger than the one we currently grapple with – the one in which there is “never enough money” to care for our planet and meet the needs of our civilization.

The Innovation Bank:

The Innovation Bank utilizes game mechanics, blockchain technology, and Artificial Intelligence to measure the natural interactions of engineers, scientists, and technologists within a simulation representing this hidden economy. Novel Financial Instruments may then represent this new value.

What is an Ingenesist?

A “Capitalist” is a person who uses money to invest in trade and industry for profit. An “Ingenesist” is a person who uses ingenuity to invest in trade and industry for profit. Both operate in tandem to arrive at optimal solutions to market requirements.

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The Ingenesist Project comprises the collective vision, intellect, and creativity of more than 250 engineers, scientists, and technologists who have collaborated across various industries over the past 30 years as a non-profit research and governance organization.

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Mitigating Global Systemic Risk

By Admin

On September 15, 2023

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The State of The World

The world is facing increasingly systemic challenges that pose significant threats to the global economy. The risk of a catastrophic event in one part of the world triggering widespread instability or collapse is now more imminent than ever. This isn’t merely a political issue; it’s an engineering challenge with the potential for a straightforward solution.

Insurance plays a vital role in ensuring the smooth operation of the global economy by providing a steady financial backbone for its builders, innovators, and participants. However, insurance can only function effectively when we have a clear understanding of known risks, their probabilities, and the consequences of potential losses. This underscores the critical importance of curating accurate and validated information about the physical state of the world.

The Domain of Engineering

Engineers, fundamentally, are professionals dedicated to reducing risk in complex systems. Interestingly, their analytical methods bear a striking resemblance to those employed by actuaries in the insurance industry. This highlights that the task of mitigating global systemic risk hinges on harnessing the expertise and observations of global engineers, scientists, and technologists.

The Age of Disinformation

In the information age, the business model predominantly revolves around collecting, manipulating, and leveraging information. Sadly, there are limited incentives to curate and verify accurate information. It’s worth noting that the absence of information can be as detrimental as false information, and both are considerably cheaper than producing and validating factual information. This is where the financial system faces significant challenges.

Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Assets

One of the most pressing issues facing society today is the misallocation and confinement of engineers and scientists within various silos, such as academic institutions, political boundaries, corporate structures, arcane ontologies, and other factors unrelated to the natural laws equally affecting us all. Their knowledge is often categorized as “intangible assets,” not because it lacks substance, but because it’s challenging to quantify. Imagine if there were a quick and straightforward method to measure these intangible assets, transforming them into “tangible” assets, thereby creating a new asset class significantly more valuable than traditional assets.

A Straightforward Solution

The Ingenesist Project, a nonprofit professional network, is developing a platform designed to measure intangible assets and render them more tangible. Through the utilization of game theory, blockchain technology, and artificial intelligence, credible individuals make claims about the physical state of the world, which are then validated by other participants on the professional network. This dynamic process creates a validated and easily measurable large language graph, from which valuable AI business intelligence can be derived. Participants receive electronic tokens for contributing to this immutable native blockchain. The global insurance and finance industry can access this powerful network graph by purchasing tokens on a third-party clearinghouse from those seeking to sell them, with token value determined by market supply and demand.

Vast Consequences

By introducing this innovative framework, a new set of incentives can be established, making truth more profitable than fiction, at scale. The barriers that have traditionally separated engineers and scientists will no longer obstruct the curation of information essential to the insurance industry for crafting effective and socially impactful insurance products. This platform operates under a set of rules that apply equitably to all participants, eradicating corruption and unnecessary friction. Crucially, it provides the insurance industry with a reliable baseline of data to train AI models accurately, ensuring they operate in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price.

Visionary Leaders

The Ingenesist Project seeks sponsors to expedite the development of the “Innovation Bank.” Additionally, directorships and governance positions are available for visionary leaders in the insurance and engineering fields who recognize the potential of this groundbreaking initiative.

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Blockchain and NAFTA May Have a Lot in Common

By Admin

On September 23, 2016

nafta-crossing Anyone who was around in the early 1990’s may remember the mantra of modern globalization was that centralized markets were bad and decentralized markets were good. Fast forward to 2016 and blockchain technology: centralized ledgers are bad decentralized ledgers are good. Does this sound familiar? Blockchain and NAFTA may have a lot in common. The good news is that perhaps this new world is not quite as uncharted as it now appears.

Coinciding with the end of the Cold War, we can now look back at NAFTA as the Big Bang of modern globalization. The supporting calculus is credited largely to the ‘theory’ of Comparative Advantage; an economic thesis referring to the ability of any given economic actor to produce goods and services at a lower opportunity cost than other economic actors. The idea first appeared in 1817 in a book by English economist David Ricardo, “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation” David Recardo’s ideas still serve as the logical basis of international trade. The efficiency of this economic model were at the time, and still are, indisputable.

Further back, the 15th Century concept of Laissez-Faire is an economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from government interference. Meanwhile, the “invisible hand” was a term first used by Adam Smith to describe the unintended social benefits of individual actions. These ideas formed the cornerstones of modern Capitalism – the decentralization movement of a prior era. Indeed, Capitalism solved a great many human problems while arguably ushering into existence new, and possibly more perilous problems such mass political instability, financial crises, and even climate change. Now, the advent of bitcoin claims to solve many of these problems. This begs the question, what new problems will be created after 25 years of blockchain technology?

More importantly, perhaps this connection to a large body of precedence (if we are clever) can guide us to a different set of outcomes than prior decentralization technologies. This is an important and timely question given the blockchain technology, due to the Network Effect, is exponentially more powerful than the relatively linear Law of Comparative Advantage.

Lessons Learned

I was involved with developing standards for the mutual recognition of engineering professionals between US, Canada, and Mexico back in 1993-1996. What made NAFTA different, and hence “modern”, was an inclusion of free trade in services sector. These included financial services like banking and insurance as well as professional service providers from engineers to librarians. Essentially NAFTA attempted to treat intangible value directly as a tangible object for international trade. Still a problem yet to be solved.

At the time however, the mutual recognition of professional engineers was controversial and divisive. The US engineers were fearful that they would lose their high paying jobs to cheap Mexican engineers, whose salaries were about 1/10 the US engineering salary. A “giant sucking sound” was the popular phrase coined by a billionaire presidential candidate at the time. The fear was made very real for many people, not unlike the immigration debate that continues to rage today.

I saw something different.

In Mexico, I saw an entire nation – an entire continent – that needed everything that US engineers create. Mexico, Central America, and South America needed roads, bridges, structures, water, energy, and every manner of infrastructure upon which free markets utterly depend. Since NAFTA also liberalized trade in financial services, that meant that economic development could be financed at low cost of capital. In my youthful idealism, I felt that the opportunities for engineers from all countries was beyond extraordinary – to me, it was specifically the rising tide of basic infrastructure that would float all boats. Unfortunately, this opportunity was woefully squandered. Let me explain.

In the US, and many developed countries, the professional engineering licensure laws assure transparency, consensus, and economic incentives that rewards high integrity rather than low integrity among engineers and contractors who carry such licensure. When the PE stamp is indelibly attached to the project plans, the asset that is described by those plans is held in suspension on the balance sheet during the design and construction phase. This span of time is when the highest monetary risks and technical risks occurs. Insurance companies depend heavily on engineers to verify the design, materials, processes, components, chronological order and performance of all components of the systems that they insure. Where risk can be transferred to insurance, the cost of capital can be minimized.

The problem with the NAFTA Mutual Recognition Standards for engineers was that the three negotiating bodies for the US, Canada, and Mexico failed to reach an agreement over reciprocity of the other member’s licensure model and instead defaulted to the highest common denominator which fell far short of practicality while also failing to meet the conditions of insurability, especially for Mexico. As such, infrastructure projects could not be financed for lack of licensed engineers in the relevant NAFTA jurisdictions. This was not for lack of money because NAFTA also liberated access to financial services – but for lack of insurance. Without a tip-to-toe insurance presence, Latin American economies continue to experience difficulties in bridging the capitalization gap. Innocent people suffer.

Many trade agreement that followed NAFTA would go on to include free trade in services, and also inherit this flaw capitalization of infrastructure for lack of Global Engineers. Unfortunately, mutual recognition of engineers would be stopped cold at the borders for lack of insurance. Many of the problems associated with globalization today, in my opinion, can be attributed to the failure of the NAFTA Mutual Recognition Document for Professional Engineers. We have an opportunity to correct this flaw and it is imperative that we do so.

To centralize, decentralize, or re-centralize.

While the economic theories of decentralization are sound, the intended outcome has been elusive. Instead of converting from centralized serfdom to the invisible hand of freedom, we keep inventing new forms of re-centralization where one centralized system is traded for another under the auspice of decentralization! The danger is that blockchain technology will not reach its potential of economic freedom for all, rather, it will simply become another form of mechanization that replaces people with machines. A decentralized solution will require the integration of machines with people. That means we need to augment human capacity not “surplus” it.

Blockchain technology replaces some – but not all – of the decisions that a human administrator makes. It will be important to look at bureaucratic processes and accurately discern what can go to a blockchain and what must remain in human judgement. The current markers of re-centralization include so-called permissioned ledgers to replace back office workers. Permissioned by whom? A centralized authority? The running joke in the cryptocurrency space is that any effort to control a decentralized system quickly cancels out the advantages of having one in the first place. Re-centralization is dangerous.

Instead, the integration of humans and blockchains should take a hybrid approach where humans serve as adjudicators to the blockchain machinery pointing smart contracts toward the intended outcome at specific points of risk transfer. Eventually, a means to decentralize the human adjudicators will be required so that they cannot be corrupted. One such solution is proposed by The Ingenesist Project. It is called Curiosumé and it converts a CV to cryptography so that holders can lock contracts to a blockchain quasi-anonymously.

The consortium between engineering and insurance is a critical development in the current evolution in blockchain technology and is required to break the cycle of recentralization by expanding the insurance capacity of our financial system to a fundamental storage of value – public infrastructure. We need to learn how to convert existing engineering and construction contracts into blockchain adjudicated smart contracts. We need to figure out how to decentralize the adjudicators in a fault tolerant system that cannot be easily corrupted, thus providing for optimal allocation of public and natural resources. Then we need to expand the adjudication system to all other service professionals who also serve the needs of our human markets. The resulting cryptocurrency will have intrinsic properties that people will be willing to trade. In this manner, the cost of capital will be lowest for the most proper allocation of resources required by an increasingly crowded planet.

(Adapted from; Insurance: The Highest and Best Use of Blockchain Technology, D.Robles, July 2016 National Center for Insurance Policy and Research / National Association of Insurance Commissioners Newsletter: http://www.naic.org/cipr_newsletter_archive/vol19_blockchain.pdf)

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The Mechanics of Blockchains

By Admin

On September 13, 2016

rubrik-fridge The Mechaics of Blockchains

Blockchain technology is like a three-trick pony. It essentially combines three slightly clumsy computer tricks to mimic decisions that a human administrator routinely makes. The difference is that, if done correctly, the computer can perform some of these decisions with great speed, accuracy and scalability. The peril is that, if done incorrectly, the computer can propagate an incorrect outcome with the same stunning efficiency.

1: The Byzantine General’s Dilemma

A scenario first described in 1982 at SRI International models the first trick. This problem simulation refers to a hypothetical group of military generals, each commanding a portion of the Byzantine Army, who have encircled a city that they intend to conquer. They have determined that: 1. They all must attack together, or 2. They all must retreat together. Any other combination would result in annihilation.

The problem is complicated by two conditions: 1. There may be one or more traitors among the leadership, 2. The messengers carrying the votes about whether to attack or retreat are subject to being intercepted. So, for instance, a traitorous general could send a tie-breaking vote in favor of attack to those who support the attack, and a no vote to those who support a retreat, intentionally causing disunity and a rout.

See also: Can Blockchains Be Insured?

A Byzantine Fault Tolerant system may be achieved with a simple test for unanimity. After the vote is called, each general then “votes on the vote,” verifying that their own vote was registered correctly. The second vote must be unanimous. Any other outcome would trigger a default order to retreat.

Modern examples of Byzantine Fault Tolerant Systems:

The analogy for networks is that computers are the generals and the instruction “packet” is the messenger. To secure the general is to secure the system. Similar strategies are commonplace in engineering applications from aircraft to robotics to any autonomous vehicle where computers vote, and then “vote on the vote.” The Boeing 777 and 787 use byzantine proof algorithms that convert environmental data to movements of, say, a flight control surface. Each is clearly insurable in a highly regulated industry of commercial aviation. So this is good news for blockchains.

2: Multi-Key Cryptography

While the Byzantine Fault Tolerant strategy is useful for securing the nodes in a network (the generals), multi-key cryptography is for securing the packets of information that they exchange. On a decentralized ledger, it is important that the people who are authorized to access information and the people who are authorized to send the information are secured. It is also important that the information cannot be tampered with in transit. Society now expends a great deal of energy in bureaucratic systems that perform these essential functions to prevent theft, fraud, spoofing and malicious attacks. Trick #2 allows this to be done with software.

Assume for a moment that a cryptographic key is like any typical key for opening locks. The computer can fabricate sets of keys that recognize each other. Each party to the transaction has a public key and a private key. The public key may be widely distributed because it is indiscernible by anyone without the related private key.

Suppose that Alice has a secret to share with Bob. She can put the secret in a little digital vault and seal it using her private key + Bob’s public key. She then sends the package to Bob over email. Bob can open the packet with his private key + Alice’s public key. This ensures that the sender and receiver are both authorized and that the package is secured during transit.

3: The Time Keeper

Einstein once said, the only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once. There are several ways to establish order in a set of data. The first is for everyone to synchronize their clocks relative to Greenwich, England, and embed each and every package with dates of creation, access records, revisions, dates of exchange, etc. Then we must try to manage these individual positions, revisions and copies moving through digital space and time.

The other way is to create a moving background (like in the old TV cartoons) and indelibly attach the contracts as the background passes by. To corrupt one package, you would need to hijack the whole train. The theory is that it would be prohibitively expensive, far in excess of the value of the single package, to do so.

Computer software of the blockchain performs the following routine to accomplish the effective equivalent process: Consider for a moment a long line of bank vaults. Inside each vault is the key or combination to the vault immediately to the right. There are only two rules: 1. Each key can only be used once, and 2. No two vaults can be open at the same time. Acting this out physically is a bit of a chore, but security is assured, and there is no way to go backwards to corrupt the earlier frames. The only question now is: Who is going to perform this chore for the benefit of everyone else, and why?

Finally, here is why the coin is valuable

There are several ways to push this train along. Bitcoin uses something called a proof-of-work algorithm. Rather than hiding the combinations inside each vault, a bunch of computers in a worldwide network all compete to guess the combination to the lock by solving a puzzle that is difficult to crack but easy to verify. It’s like solving a Rubik Cube; the task is hard to do, but everyone can easily see a solution – that is sufficient proof that work has been done and therefore the solved block is unique and valid, thereby establishing consensus.

Whoever solves the puzzle is awarded electronic tokens called bitcoin (with a lower case b). This is sort of like those little blue ticket that kids get at the arcade and can be exchanged for fun prizes on the way out. These bitcoins simply act as an incentive for people to run computers that solve puzzles that keep the train rolling.

Bitcoins (all crypto currencies) MUST have value, because, if they did not, their respective blockchain would stop cold.

A stalled blockchain would be the crypto-currency equivalent of bankruptcy. This may account for some amount of hype-fueled speculation surrounding the value of such digital tokens. Not surprisingly, the higher the price, the better the blockchain operates.

While all of this seems a bit confusing, keep in mind that we are describing the thought patterns of a computer, not necessarily a human.

The important thing is that we can analyze the mathematics. From an insurability standpoint, most of the essential ingredients needed to offer blockchain-related insurance products exist as follows.

1. The insurer can identify the risk exposures associated with generals, traitors, locks, vaults, trains and puzzles.

2. The insurer can calculate probability of failure by observing:

The degree of Byzantine fault tolerance.
The strength of the cryptography
The relative value of the coins (digital tokens)

3. The consequences of failure are readily foreseeable by traditional accounting where the physical nature of the value can be assessed, such as a legal contract.

We can therefore conclude that each of the tricks performed by this fine little pony are individually insurable. Therefore, the whole rodeo is also insurable if, and only if, full transparency is provided to all stakeholders and the contract has physical implications.

Markets are most efficient when everyone has equal access to information – the same is essential for blockchains. So much so that any effort to control decentralized networks may, in fact, render the whole blockchain uninsurable. It is fundamentally important that the insurer is vigilant toward the mechanics of the blockchain enterprise that they seek to insure, especially where attempting to apply blockchain to its own internal processes.

Adapted from: Insurance: The Highest and Best Use of Blockchain Technology, July 2016 National Center for Insurance Policy and Research/National Association of Insurance Commissioners Newsletter: http://www.naic.org/cipr_newsletter_archive/vol19_blockchain.pdf

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Are Blockchains Insurable?

By Admin

On August 3, 2016

home-fire Are blockchains insurable? This question was posed to us as a topic for presentation by the Center of Insurance Policy and Research, a research arm of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (CIPR / NAIC)

The trigger appears to be that some insurance companies are being asked to insure the business operations of blockchain enterprises. This same concern would apply to legacy business operations that may choose to deploy a blockchain – basically, a shared database managed by software. If one listens to the blockchain activists, this could basically apply to everyone in the near future.

The Ingenesist Project volunteered the following opinion to the question; Are Blockchains Insurable? The article was published in the July 2016 CIPR Journal

Article available here

This article is comprehensive and staggering in its implications. It begins by shaping the given landscape of finance and entrepreneurship in terms of insurability. It follows with, in essence, a mathematical proof that arrives at a conclusion that blockchains are insurable, but business processes using blockchains may not be. Luckily, the technology offers sufficient mathematical underpinning to calculate and adequately pool risk exposures of its components. However, the trouble arises where digital assets can neither be treated as money nor property. This extralegal condition may exist which would be categorically non-insurable in mainstream finance.

“Extralegal” refers to a condition in which something is neither legal nor illegal. Economist Hernando De Soto writes about how the extralegal sector in many parts of the world grossly inhibits economic growth because people are unable to secure “title” to property and businesses that they create. They are unable to bridge the capitalization gap – that is, the ability to borrow “money” against tangible assets or future returns.

Blockchain technology appears to be languishing in the extralegal domain as courts and governments have little uniform ideas about how and where this tech fits in society. That is, until something goes wrong like a major hack where important people lose a lot of money. Then some patchwork of blanket legislation will likely emerge to favor those of one sector over another. The running joke in crypto-space is that any effort to control blockchain technology would negate any benefits of having it in the first place.

There is a third option.

This article raises the possibility that the pairing of blockchain tech with professional engineers (as the decentralized adjudicators of smart contracts) would achieve a state of insurability and thus bridge the capitalization gap required for mainstream financing of blockchain enterprise. This arrangement applies primarily to basic infrastructure and derivatives of basic infrastructure which may not actually be a bad thing at all.

On a critical path.

The Earth is an epic case study in deferred maintenance. There are very real and serious global problems that impact every living creature on Earth that we need to attend to immediately. Critical path methodology is a technique familiar to all builders as a set of instructions specifying where one action must precede the next in order for subsequent actions to occur. Millions of business plans that provide basic human needs and protect our natural resources, and that are currently unprofitable, will suddenly become hugely profitable.

These outcomes could be accomplished with the recommendations provided within. Please read this article and forward it to others who are interested in this technology. There is very real money to be made in the next economic paradigm that is currently at our fingertips.

Article available here

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The Highest and Best Use for Blockchain Technology

By Admin

On May 14, 2016

The hallmark of a great society is the ability to capitalize it’s needs, not it’s arbitrage opportunities. The Highest and Best Use for Blockchain Technology must be to reduce the cost of capital by decentralizing risk, not necessarily money…yet

Blockchain technology carries a promise of great opportunity, efficiency, and fairness in business operations and governance for an entire struggling planet. If that is true, then Blockchain technology should be integrated broadly and uniformly across society and within as many existing institutions as possible. If that is true, then Blockchain development should not be the exclusive domain of a single sector, such as banking. Nor should Blockchain development reflect priorities of highest ROI from VC start-ups. Likewise, purely Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) may carry the risk of operating in an extralegal sector without legal recourse, thereby increasing net volatility, not decreasing it.

A different track is required.

The primary objective of Blockchain technology must be to reduce the cost of capital by decentralizing risk, not necessarily money. The highest and best use for blockchain technology is therefore insurance, not necessarily banking. In doing so, blockchain innovation can then be applied broadly, evenly, and intentionally across the economy. This makes sense because when building anything complex or important, one logical piece needs to go in front of the next logical piece regardless of it’s individual ROI, because the collective ROI is the true basis of valuation. If people tried to build an airplane in the same manner we are now trying to build decentralized economics, a few may benefit, but an air transportation system, as a whole, would be tragically constrained.

We have seen this before.

Many of the issues currently propping up the narrative to the Blockchain phenomenon were also present during the time of this author’s participation in the NAFTA negotiations. Anyone who was around in the early 1990’s may remember the mantra of modern globalization was that decentralized markets were good and centralized markets were bad. The mathematics supporting the efficiency of free trade models such as the Theory of Comparative Advantage were, and still are, bullet proof. So what happened?

Unfortunately, decentralized markets were administered unevenly, disproportionately, and only partially insurable, at best. The act of trying to control a decentralized market eliminated many of the benefits of having one. Today, we face a similar peril, except we are playing with a far more powerful technology promising exponential efficiency, or exponential deficiency. Don’t let the pundits fool you. It can go either way.

The difference today is that we also have the knowledge, foresight, a technological tool kit, and profound responsibility to get it right this time.

Let’s begin.

The place to start developing blockchain technology is through a consortium of Insurance and Professional Engineering institutions for the creation of relevant infrastructure and the physical derivatives upon which everyone utterly depends. This includes renewable energy, clean air, safe water, transportation systems, health and welfare, housing, building systems, computer networks, etc. After all, bitcoins aren’t worth a whole lot when the power goes down.

Infrastructure projects, and all their beneficiary derivatives, require financial institutions that can bridge the capitalization gap between the inception of a project and revenue from the project. This period of time is rife with peril because the “money and title” precedes the delivery of the physical asset. The cost of capital is directly proportional to the risk associated with project delivery. Wherever the insurance industry is capable of pooling project risks, the cost of capital will fall precipitously. The insurance industry is therefore an imperative component to this objective. Banking is relatively simple, accounts can be cleared with a placeholder currency; a token, if you will.

Herein lie both the challenge and the opportunity facing Insurance and Engineering institutions related to Blockchain Technology:

First, as with all new technology, we need to recognize that society will reorganize itself around Blockchain Technology. We need to provide hundreds of millions of entrepreneurs and citizens the support systems with which to do so.

Second, if each component part of the blockchain system is insurable, so too should the entire system. We need to insure and reinsure each individual components of a blockchain business system(s) in order to lower its cost of capital.

Finally, once insurable, each component part of the new economy will have the same cost of capital as any other part. The relative value of an investment will therefore be ordered in time — the most important and valuable piece is the one that goes next in the critical path. This is how things get built.

Taken together, Insurance and Engineering are sufficiently disintermediated from short-term objectives and are ideally suited for the long game. Together, they can bridge the capitalization gap upon which everyone can then cross. They provide outcomes in the physical world that are essential to everyone. Together, they can deliver the projects that are most important — the ones that come next as we navigate our critical path into the future.

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Bitcoin is Already a Derivative

By Admin

On March 23, 2015

Many a Bitcoin company executive seeks a way to hedge the balance sheet risk of their business. It would be useful to have a liquid (ostensibly, dollar backed) futures and options exchange market that would provide hedging opportunities for speculators while providing much needed price stability. It sounds like Bitcoin is already a derivative.

What is a Derivative:

In the most basic definition, a derivative is something whose value is derived from the value of something else. Derivatives have no intrinsic value in and of themselves. Their value is based on the expected future price movements of the underlying asset.

Bitcoin is Already a Derivative

A bitcoin does not have an intrinsic value in and of itself, rather, the value of a Bitcoin is derived from the value of all the glorious things you can do with Bitcoin which cannot be done without Bitcoin. Indeed this value is significant: bitcoin adoption promises to eliminate the gatekeepers of banking, insurance, law, and even governance.

Hey wait, Aren’t all those gatekeepers derivatives too!!!

Bankers, insurance brokers, lawyers and politicians do not have any intrinsic value in and of themselves either. They produce nothing intrinsically edible, healing, nor comforting for anyone. Like Bitcoin, the value of banks and insurance companies and legislators is derived from all the things that you can do with them which cannot be done with out them. These include capitalizing seed or machinery for growing food, or constructing a home or factory for increasing human productivity, or providing a salary to a teacher or doctor (in the conspicuous absence of a currency not of the gatekeeper’s design).

What isn’t a derivative?

The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the building that keep us warm and dry, the machinery that transports us and makes us healthy and the teachers that show us how to do useful things are NOT derivatives. They have intrinsic value in and of themselves.

What is an Integral?

In mathematics an integral is the a function of which a given function is the derivative. Creating an integral is the reverse of creating a derivative. That is the direction we should be headed in.

For example, integral of a teacher may be the school building within which everyone gathers. As such, the value of the teacher can be derived from the change in value of the building that keeps everyone warm and dry during their lessons. The integral of the food we eat is the machinery that allows the farmer to be more efficient. In this case, the value of the food (nutritional) is derived from the quality of the farming practiced that created it.

The Opposite of a Derivative is an Integral.

When all is said and done and we’ve followed the integral to its origin, we will always find an Ingenesist. An Ingenesist is someone who invents, creates, designs, envisions, and brings forward into reality something that supports the health, welfare, and safety of people and environment. Those are the only intrinsic values that truly exist. Seriously, what else is there?

So when the financial world is contemplating derivatives of derivatives of derivatives of derivatives, we are contemplating the integrals of the integrals of the integrals. Bitcoin is already a derivative. Ingenesist is already an integral.

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Introduction To Curiosumé

By Admin

On September 13, 2014

(Editors note: We are publishing the documentation and tutorial for the Curiosumé application for review and comment)

Introduction To Curiosumé

Curiosumé is an open source specification for the analog-to-digital conversion of knowledge asset objects. Designed as a system to replace the résumé as a means for describing the interests, skills, and abilities of people, things, and ideas — it functions as a personal digital API for the trade and exchange of actionable knowledge.

Since semantic knowledge assets are machine-readable, they generate matches, proximity measurements, relevance and importance rankings, and predicted probabilities of various outcomes. As such, the economics of “intangibles” becomes computable and meaningful.

By activating knowledge assets within an economic system, social entrepreneurs may readily trade and exchange intangible assets much as they do with tangible assets. Curiosumé facilitates trade of intangibles through a unique distributed network of objects and assigned attributes.

Ownership of one’s Personal API
Anonymity until point of transaction
Deploying multiple personas
Combining multiple personae
Imaginary personae
Measuring proxies for economic output, matching, assessing, scenario testing
Anonymity and privacy

Use Cases:

The use cases for Curiosumé will be a numerous as the number of entrepreneurs who can articulate the protocol in a market. Since Curiosumé eliminates “Competition” from the onset, there is little or no economic incentive to lie, deceive, or cheat. This allows the market an opportunity to defer vetting mechanisms to downstream applications that can compare (for example) a submitted persona against a control personal as a cryptographic key to unlock a transaction or block chain, etc. In essence, making cheating too expensive to sustain.

Individuals may overlay their own persona on any dataset to visualize and discover adjacencies, paths, and connections.
Individuals may interact with the web using a Personal API
Protegé and Mentors may find each other in close proximity in community or within an organization.
People with special skills can find worthy and productive collaborations in communities or within the organization.
Trade in knowledge assets is facilitated through “anonymous until point of transaction” protocol. People will provide better data knowing that they have complete control over their personal identities.
Build Social Currency; multiple personas may combine Curiosumés to establish the knowledge inventory for a team or to discover the probability that a group of friends may produce any mutual affinity efficiently together.
Any product or service may be described in Curiosumé format and compared to a community listing to discover customers, partners, and employees.
Curiosume data is pre-normalized allowing any user to make predictive assessments about any collection of personas relative to a project, product, event, itinerary, or interaction with any physical asset.
Cryptographic; a personal API may be used as a private key in unlocking smart contracts on the block chain protocol
Toll Booth on Big Data; marketers, employers, or data aggregators would pay individuals for access to their persona.
Instead of advertising to a demographic, marketers may identify specific knowledge assets and may offset prices based on the social values or proclivities of the persona.
Economic development agencies can take a knowledge asset survey of a region to identify what institutions or industries they have a strategic advantage. Or, they may retrain or import specific knowledge assets in order to grow into new industries – with great precision.
Philanthropic institutions can assess need and impact prior to committing to directed giving by assembling strategic knowledge assets around a specific philanthropic goal.
Corporations may assess their ability to enter a develop a new products or enter a new market based on a Curiosumé survey
Competitors may assess the ability, and cost to defend against their competition disrupting a new product initiative.
Corporations can better tailor their products to what customers actually want to buy rather than trying to “market” what the company already knows how to produce.
Corporations can make hiring vs training decisions with better clarity based on a Curiosumé survey.
The college “degree” system may evolve in favor of boutique personas designed for innovation in an industry.
The financial industry (from the NYSE, Banks to VC) can determine the probability that a company may be able to execute a business plan given their Curiosumé survey
The Insurance industry can mitigate risk exposures by assuring that the right collection of knowledge assets are deployed to, say, a construction project.

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Game Over

By Admin

On February 2, 2011

The first law of Gaming: If you can’t win a game playing by the rules, stop playing the game, or change the rules. It would seem that Egyptians would add a corollary “Change the Rulers”.

This is not trivial.

Billions of people are walking the planet Earth with the nagging feeling that they cannot win their game playing by the rules they are given. If America was once the shining beacon of opportunity where hard work and perseverance were the main ingredients of success, and Americans are feeling that they can’t win playing by the rules, then you can expect two things to happen: People will stop playing the game, AND the rules will change.

Interactive Entertainment

Looking on the sunny side, we see Gaming companies achieving astonishing valuations in Silicon Valley. What is even more remarkable is that a similar thing is happening concurrently with Travel, Coupons, and Alternate Currencies. Many people stand back aghast at the sheer size of some of these bets; $120M for Tripit, $5B worth Zynga, $6B for Groupon, $50B for Facebook. The Market capitalization of Apple ($320B) is almost 2 times greater GDP of Egypt ($188B).

It would be foolish to underestimate the value the gaming component – now called “Interactive Entertainment” – as enabled by the Internet. Gaming is an extremely mathematical science where designers predict the probabilities that a player will favor one strategy over another. The better these prediction become, the more interactive and, ostensibly, the more entertaining a game becomes – at least to some people.

The Calculus of Gaming

It is no coincidence that the calculus of gaming and the knowledge assets deployed to the gaming industry are functionally identical to financial and marketing industries such as banking, insurance and demography. Banks set the price of money based on the probability that you can pay it back (credit scores). Insurance companies set the price on premiums based on the probability that you will experience a loss (actuarial data). And Demographers predict what you will buy and who you will vote for. After all, a Bank is really just a game that bets that you will win and an insurance company bets that you will lose, and demographics keeps the game, well, unfair. But together, they all hedge each other’s risk, not yours.

Watch The Integration, closely

From prior articles; The Travel industry is a proxy for how and where ideas are spread. The Coupon Industry influences human behavior to accelerate the disruptive innovation and to create new value simultaneously. The Gaming Industry will define the rules by which the new game will be played and provide the ability to predict when, where, and how to value social capital. When the integrated is complete, the ability to capitalize and securitize a new social currency (next article) will emerge to hedge, and then replace, the dollar.

Game over.

***

(Editor’s note: The above post is #4 in a series [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] introducing The Value Game to a new class of business methods. The first real world application is Social Flights; a collaborative production / consumption game being deployed to the market. If this works, the new business method class will be generalized throughout the economy to catalyze the convertibility of social currency. Please join us at The Future of Money and Technology Summit in San Francisco on february 28th 2011 where we will unveil the work to the technology community)

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Using Social Currency To Fight Terrorism

By Admin

On January 8, 2010

Given the events of the last several weeks, it’s time to for the aviation industry to get serious with Social Media. This article demonstrates how an alternate currency can be used to severely reduce or eliminate terrorist risk in commercial aviation. Think I’m kidding, read on.

Obviously an airline will not let you board an airplane if you don’t have the financial currency sufficient to buy ticket. Why should an airline let you board an airplane if you do not have social currency sufficient to fulfill your social obligations while in the air?

People with extreme social currency deficiencies are routinely stripped of their rights by a jury of peers and isolated from society for a period of time (where they would not board an airplane anyway). While there are many systems in place to manage the various degrees of social currency deficiency, none appear to be able to identify a terrorist without also violating the rights of non-terrorists.

Human Writes

However, many people are willing to share information about themselves to associates with whom an economic benefit is shared or exchanged. This happens a billion times per week on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter – why not among fellow passengers? After all everyone is already connected by 6 degrees.

What would a terrorist’s Facebook profile say about them? Do they have a lot of referrals on linkedin? Do they post great work on Flikr? Is their community orchestra featured on My Space? Are their posts popular on twitter?

Should a social currency credit score become imperative to social transactions as the financial credit score is for financial transactions?

Banks and Insurance companies already rely on a highly invasive “Credit Score” to establish financial risk profile as a means of protecting their selves and their other clients. Why wouldn’t an airline use a social credit score to establish a social risk profile as a means of protecting their selves and the lives of their other clients?

Ruse and lose

Sure, the bad guys can adapt to social media as they have adapted to all other measures. The problem is that the greater the size and scope of their social media ruse, the more difficult it is to maintain the ruse. A threshold score could be set to nearly eliminate this possibility. Those folks can then simply opt into the full body scan.

The Paradigm Shift

As the saying goes, the attacker needs to be successful only once, while the defender needs to be successful every time. The concept of a Social media credit score flips this paradigm on it’s head. The attacker’s social credit score needs to be successful every time. The defender needs to be successful only once.

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The Fundamental Flaw of NAFTA

By Admin

On January 1, 2010