Blockchain and Back to the Future

In 1986 we watched the movie Back to the Future and marveled at the possibilities that it explored for us in regards to what our future had in store for us. Aside from the hoverboard or timetraveling Delorians, which we never really considered as a possibility for a future a mere 30 years away, the thought of a smart home and rehydrating pizza machines was pretty awesome.

And the future did arrive. We celebrated almost unceremoniously on October 21, 2015 the day that Marty McFly was supposed to arrive in the future. We found out at that point that many of our friends were not as much BTTF (Back to the Future) geeks as we were.

But it was a good time to examine which predictions from 30 years prior had come true.

What does any of this have to do with Blockchain?

Blockchain is one of the most amazing technological breakthroughs at least in my lifetime. It provides a platform for us to solve problems like we have never been able to before. In our past, the days of Back to the Future, we worked on creating new ways for efficient delivery of products and services. This was great. It was an exciting time. But for every solution we came up with there was a new problem.

Since the industrial revolution we have been creating solutions to make our life easier. We have developed a process for solving these problems. But along with these solutions we have created a whole new set of problems.

In another movie reference, Jeff Goldblum states adroitly:

Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should

Computers went from super machines that took up entire rooms to the personal computer that we all had in our homes to smart phones that we could hold in our hands. Our homes became smarter connecting, via apps, to our smart phones. We can now open our doors with our phones, turn on our lights with our phones, remotely turn on the air conditioning with our phones which is particularly helpful when returning from vacation on a very hot day. But it doesn't stop there. We can buy refrigerators that give us suggestions of things to buy at the store depending on what we already have at home. And of course there is Alexa. We can tell Alexa to call our kids, order groceries from Amazon and have them delivered (and then Amazon can drop them off INSIDE our house even if we aren't there!). Alexa can tell us the news of the day, a funny joke, or find our favorite radio station.

The only problem with all of these amazing solutions is that we are being tracked with every use of these conveniences. Information is being collected and used by the companies providing these solutions.

In recent months some of the problems of all this connectivity has come to light. We have given up our privacy for the sake of a few conveniences. 

This is why we need Blockchain solutions more than ever. We now know the possibilities of a connected life but we don't want the loss of privacy that has become inherent with these luxuries.

So like in the movies Back to the Future and Jurassic Park the future is now. We need to implement Blockchain solutions to all of our technological advances so that we can enjoy the luxuries of technology while not giving up our privacy found in a pre-digital life.