Transparency of Values in a Decentralised World

The Seratio Ecosystem is aided by AI to assess the complex analytical data available and to steer consumers, becoming their online friend and guide

Hyper-Reality by Keiichi Matsuda

Two important trends are making corporates re-think their strategies and relevance in our future economies.

Transparency

The hallmark of this decade has been the growth of transparency as an instrument to  openly display governance in our public offices, demonstrate corporate intentions, reflect the goodness within our products and even prove our own values to each other.

The public sharing of our actions and decisions is rapidly accelerating, particularly with the under 35’s. Social media and mobile apps  bring our lives under closer scrutiny, for many now on a daily basis. The things we like, where we socialise what we eat are all commonly shared on social media.  But what about the transparency of information to consumers?  Whilst price comparison sites and convenient middlemen layers have become commonplace, we remain sadly lacking in coherent, simple signposting for most of the goods and services we buy. To navigate our often intricate lives we readily embrace any kind of ‘Go-NoGo’ filters that allow decisions to be guided with least effort.

Arguably, consumer data, the value sets and preferences may become the most valued asset. As the trend for transparency continues, the analytics behind those choices and preference will shape the retail market push.  As important the trend of information to consumers will shape the markets, just as comparison sites have influenced and taken ownership of consumers in the insurance space, information and data providers of the provenance of goods have the same opportunity, to guide, advise and own the relationship with those consumers. Have goods been manufactured with slavery within their supply chain?  Are the suppliers and supply chain manufacturing those goods adding value to the world or detracting total value by stealing from their supply chain, or stealing from the environment?

The world is an increasingly complex place and consumers crave simplicity and convenience.  For this they are willing to sacrifice, security, privacy and price. At the same time, expectations of free services has never been greater.  The traditional model of “Make it Pay”  has been turned upside down by the media giants of the last two decades as they offer an app for our lives for free.

So it is somewhat surprising that the consumer “values” data space remains largely untapped. What is not just in our wallet but rather in our heads, our thoughts and our hearts remains opaque to retailers and suppliers as they seek greater levels of optimisation.

Decentralisation

The antidote to centralisation is perhaps an even greater challenge to a traditional corporate organisation to navigate. How to remain relevant as a central player and controller in the non-centralised world the new public seem to crave.  The traditional model of central controller is broken down in the de-centralised world of the blockchain. This gives rise to new models, new expectations and new philosophies.

The inside out model, fails completely when one tries to implement a blockchain solution with a focus on one key stakeholder. Distributed Ledger Technology ‘DLT’ was created for a peer to peer environment, deliberately to eliminate the need for a central controller. Whilst blockchain is hailed as the next revolution and an even bigger impact than the internet, the largely centralised corporate world is still struggling to create meaningful, viable, value added applications as the models strike at the very heart of its operations.

Solution

The Seratio Ecosystem has brought together a model which addresses these two key challenges.

The original start point for the ecosystem was born from academic research into the movement of non-financial value and the understanding of a total value model, taking into account social, environmental and governance measures to assess the impact of a person, project, organisation, city, region or country. As with any measurement system, once metrics were established, agreed, recognised and used, then focus and improvements may follow. The DLT of blockchain technology presented  an ideal opportunity to move from the measurement of non-financial value to the transaction of non-financial value.

Communities of people who share common values and share a trading economy have already formed their own currencies, outside of the traditional boundaries of government and regulation and without any central controllers; organic growth. Value sets are recognised, shared and transacted.  Community members prefer to seek out those with aligned values, those who share the currency and demonstrate their value sets. This has led to crypto-currencies imbued with values, carrying the attributes of the communities that created them making it more transparent both to those who prefer to operate within these large cohesive, vibrant and transactable communities as well as those who wish to supply and target them with loyalty and rewards programmes.

Recognising the value sets or ‘provenance’ of individuals the Seratio Ecosystem also builds in the provenance of goods and services. The complex system is filtered down to a simple score to direct and guide buyers. In essence, to enable them to buy the things they value, which may be pro a particular value set, for example women or students whilst being steered away from those goods and services which fall outside of their individual values, for example anti-slavery or environmental.

The Seratio Ecosystem is aided by AI to assess the complex analytical data available and to steer consumers,  becoming their online friend and guide.  By directing purchases in the online space and on the high street value aligned purchases can be easily delivered, with no effort on the part of the consumer.

The use of blockchain and cryptocurrency record and give transparency to the value choices. In the same way that social media has a positive ground-up impact and empowerment,  the blockchain has a similar effect demonstrating aligned values and for the first time linking that to the economic activity those values support.

Number by Robert Hloz

Next Steps

To scale the models,  we need to build systems and put into practice the ecosystem platforms within a mass market. We welcome new partners who are interested in transforming their impacts and become a key player in this brave new world.

Who will step up and become the Google of the Blockchain World?