"Blockchain technology will turn marketing on its head"
Blockchain is often equated with Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin is only one application based on blockchain technology. Blockchain is much more and can do much more - also in the area of marketing. Author Jörg Eugster has formulated three theses on this.
I was recently at a congress for startups in Berlin. One talk caught my full attention: "How to build a blockchain node into a Porsche car". The speakers explained that they were in the process of building blockchain into a car, a Porsche Panamera. In this way, the car becomes a node. A node is a device connected to a blockchain network. The speakers explained several possible applications. One, they said, is that in a company parking lot, the parcel service provider could be granted access to the trunk via the blockchain. The parcel service provider would then be able to place the parcel in the trunk on its own. Other possible applications would include road pricing and an automatic billing system for parking. You drive into town and, depending on the neighborhood and time of day, small amounts are automatically debited from your car's integrated wallet using a combination of sensors, the Internet of Things and blockchain. The vignette is then no longer charged as a lump sum per year, but you are asked to pay for the service actually used. The situation is similar for parking. You drive into a parking space and leave again after some time. This is registered by sensors and transmitted to the blockchain. When you drive away, the fee is debited, not in francs or euros, but in the corresponding cryptocurrency. This is what the value systems in a blockchain are called. Each cryptocurrency has its coins or tokens. One cryptocurrency of interest to the automotive industry is IOTA, which can be used to handle such M2M (machine to machine) processes. Volkswagen and BMW, among others, are currently evaluating projects on IOTA's blockchain technology.
At the very end of the presentation "How to build a blockchain node into a Porsche Car." I asked the engineer who had given the presentation why she would develop this with the blockchain and not with current and known technologies. He said succinctly, "It's safer thanks to the blockchain." And that brings us to my three theses on how and why blockchain technology will permanently change marketing, because this "it's safer..." plays a role here as well.
My three theses for a glorious future in marketing thanks to blockchain:
1. the blockchain will make the GDPR absurd.
2: A blockchain-based digital signature makes fake bots impossible and fake news more difficult.
3: Facebook will be irrelevant in five years because of digital ID based on blockchain.
In the following sections, I will justify and defend my theses.
Thesis 1: The blockchain will make the GDPR absurd.
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to protect the privacy of users. The user is supposed to agree when data is stored about him. Personal usage and movement data is very sensitive. The user does not necessarily want to see these stored publicly. In blockchain applications, every transaction is publicly stored on the blockchain in question, but it cannot be assigned to a user. Thus, the data usually remains anonymous. It is interesting to note that thanks to the GDPR, a user can request the deletion of data. On the blockchain, it is not technically possible to delete data. But users regain sovereignty over their data through technology and can decide for themselves how they want to use it. But now the most important thing: Thanks to blockchain, users will be able to be compensated for their data, if they want to "give it away", but also for contributions with a cryptocurrency. One possible model would be that we could be tracked anonymously via the app of a billboard marketing company. This would enable the company to provide advertisers with much higher-quality data for targeting. For their part, app users would receive tokens that they could use for products and services. A loyalty program 2.0, so to speak. Such ideas are no longer distant dreams of the future. APG has announced that it is currently exploring a collaboration with IOTA, in whose proof of concept it has already participated. If IOTA can execute automated payments with a Porsche, thanks to the Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine, it can do so with a smartphone app. The smartphone thus becomes a node, just like the Porsche in the example above.
In short, if users can explicitly enable anonymous access to their data, then the GDPR will be reduced to absurdity, because the blockchain can implement the requirements underlying the GDPR better than any law.
Thesis 2: A digital signature based on blockchain makes fake bots impossible and fake news more difficult.
Imagine having a digital signature on the blockchain. The city of Zug, by the way, already offers one to its citizens. At birth, your birth certificate is stored on the blockchain. In addition, all residential addresses you have had in your life, all diplomas, all certificates, all vaccinations, all medical reports, simply all data relevant to you and your curriculum vitae are stored there. But only you have access to it. Everything is public, but only you have the private key to it. When you apply for a job, you make the "CV" data cluster with all your school-leaving qualifications, diplomas and certificates available to the potential employer. When visiting a doctor, you can make the "Health Data" data cluster available to the doctor. When you log on to a portal or e-shop with the digital ID, you and you alone decide which data to share. When you place an order, you must enter your delivery address. When you change your home, you change the new address centrally on the blockchain, which is then immediately available to all authorized e-shops. Today, you have to change it in every store. What a hassle. And now imagine that everything you publish, comment on, and like is linked to your digital ID. Everyone can immediately see if it's a Fake Bot, because a Fake Bot doesn't have a birth certificate to store on the Blockchain. It would also make it more difficult to spread fake news, because the originator could be identified beyond doubt.
Thesis 3: Facebook will be irrelevant in five years because of digital ID based on blockchain.
On a social network based on the blockchain and providing a digital ID, new business models would be possible. We would then no longer pay for advertising with our data, but would even be rewarded for our contributions and interactions. The more attention these gain thanks to comments, likes and shares, the more we get back from the network - in the form of platform-owned cryptocurrencies. And those who don't want to participate, but just want to watch, pay a small monthly fee in this very currency to ensure the platform's operation. This is by no means pure dreams of the future either: the first networks that use such technologies and try to attack Facebook's supremacy already exist. The question is: Can Facebook prevent its demise? In principle, yes, but Facebook has perhaps already gambled away too much goodwill. The call to delete one's Facebook account (hashtag #DeleteFacebook) is not effective until a challenger has succeeded in winning over a minimum number of users. Only when the network effect kicks in will Facebook have to think seriously. But then it will no longer be so easy to simply buy up the emerging competitor, as Instagram or WhatsApp did back then. People will trust a new democratic system based on the blockchain more than today's leader Facebook, which has indeed misused their data shamefully in some cases in the past.
The blockchain: a tornado or a lukewarm breeze?
Blockchain technology is already being put on the same level as the greatest innovations such as printing, electricity, radio or the Internet. But first the blockchain with its various possible applications still has to prove itself - and it will! Back when the first personal computers appeared, people seriously wondered what they could do with a computer at home. Today, they are an integral part of our lives. In 20 years, our world will look very different - not least because of the possibilities that blockchain technology holds.
The author: Jörg Eugster...
... is an Internet pioneer, ambassador for the future and Internet entrepreneur by passion since 1998. Among other things, he founded the two platforms Jobwinner.ch and Partnerwinner.ch (sold to Tamedia in 1999) and is co-founder of Swissfriends.ch (sold to Edipresse in 2008) as well as founder of other well-known Internet platforms. Eugster is a keynote speaker and lecturer at various universities of applied sciences and higher technical colleges. As an author, he has written "Übermorgen - Eine Zeitreise in unsere digitale Zukunft" (The Day After Tomorrow - A Time Travel into Our Digital Future), a book that whets our appetite for a future whose opportunities are far greater than we dare to dream today. Year of publication: 2017 254 pages Publisher: Midas ISBN-10: 3907100735 ISBN-13: 9783907100738.
The article first appeared in the print edition of Werbewoche 14/2018.
