iHodl has a crush on Amber Baldet, just like everyone on the planet who’s interested in crypto and blockchain.
Former executive director of the finance giant J.P. Morgan and currently a developer of Quorum, Amber Baldet is of a rare kind, a lady in the crypto community.
Recently Baldet shared her view on Quartz regarding the “Future of Money” She thinks that the most important currency of the future will be the personal data.
As iHodl we couldn’t stay away and decided to share some key points raised in simple terms.
- ”This decade will be remembered for the rise of surveillance capitalism”
In Baldet’s opinion, in the future, we will see more applications of AI and machine learning to disrupt the job market. It’s already here, predicting our shopping lists, and for whom we will be voting next time round, so may be worth revising your personal settings, like, everywhere?
- ”As our money becomes data, our data is becoming money.”
Your personal data is actually a valuable asset. You can rent it, sell it or just own it.
It’s all possible now thanks to the Blockchain technology. However, a more consensual system is needed.
If not looked after carefully, personal data can be used against our freedom; it could fuel passive surveillance and authoritarian regimes. At the moment everyone is interested in the blockchain, but not to give power to consumers but to raise corporate profits by increasing accessibility to data sets which are fueling soon-coming of AI.
- The Tension
Blockchain and blockchain projects must reach regular people. The technology can give the ability to own and use personal data but if it’s not user-friendly enough, it won’t fulfill this potential. Startups need to be profitable in order for investors and developers to get interested in coming aboard.
- ”Governments, too, like the idea of a more frictionless economy”
Governments are not interested in the idea of having an unprofitable central bank, which is a side effect of bitcoin. Countries are in fact slowly trying to tokenize their currencies which will give them access to a larger amount of data of its users. Baldet also warns that such projects might end up restricting people. An ever seeing eye could intrude into our daily lives since this tech can turn out to be a golden opportunity for governments to set up deeper surveillance on their citizens.
- ”Experiments in G7 countries are more cautious, but they are progressing.”
Baldet states that in G7 countries major focus is the anti-money laundering controls which eventually will give lawmakers power to freeze and claim funds. Not much of bitcoin idealism here. Every transaction can be monitored and even innocent people can be harmed in the name of “national security”. Governments are not interested in anything “private”, especially not in private currencies.
- Conclusion “The line between data and money is dissolving.“
Baldet gives the example of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and points a finger at the generation Z which might come up with better startups, better businesses we haven’t seen yet, and this just might beat the system.
Baldet concludes her words with a warning to everyone:
“It’s too late to avoid a global techno-dystopia, but it’s not too late to demand better from those in power, lest they lose access to what they need to survive—our data.”
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