A few days ago Ed. received a call from RBS – his bankers (well he assumed that it was the real RBS), asking if he was currently in Edinburgh trying to cash a dodgy cheque backed by a dodgy driver’s licence, all in Ed’s. name. No said Ed. Thank you for your help, said RBS: we are here to safeguard your money. Happy ending. Well, except that this morning a cheque (on a different numbering sequence) for £7,332 was debited to the company bank account. Well done RBS fraud team for letting through a fake cheque with a fake signature, backed by a fake licence card, having already spotted the problem.
Forum friend Ian Grigg, who I always take very seriously indeed on any such topic, wrote about Corda on his blog and concluded with a powerful statement. Bitcoin told the users it wanted an unstoppable currency - sure, works for a small group but not for the mass market. Ethereum told their users they need an unstoppable machine - which worked how spectacularly with the DAO? Not. What. We. Wanted. Corda is the only game in town because it's the only one that asked the users. It's that simple. From Financial Cryptography: Corda Day - a new force xxx It seems to me, however, what Ian is pointing to as the greatest strength of their approach is also the greatest weakness. A staple feature of unimaginative management consultants presentations about innovation is some variation on the statement by Henry Ford that if you had asked users what they wanted, they would have asked for faster horses coupled with some variation on the statement by Steve jobs that it was pointless ask...
Comments
Post a Comment