Blockchain for dummies

11

October

2017

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Everyone who is somewhat interested in technology has probably heard of the emerging opportunities of blockchain. Blockchain is a fast, efficient and cheap way to secure information and to conveniently process transactions without interference of banks or people. This principle accounts for financial transactions as well as other transactions. You can imagine blockchain as a ledger which collects and contains all data related to a transaction on a decentralized network. Everyone can add information to this ledger but nobody can manipulate it or change its rules. This leads to a high degree of safety. The security is based on complex mathematical algorithms. Because of this new technology we don’t need banks, accountants or notaries to control and verify transactions anymore. For this, the administrative and financial landscape can be completely different if blockchain continues to grow. The landscapes will be more efficient, faster, more transparent and more reliable.
But blockchain technology can be implemented in many other sectors as well. A new and interesting initiative is for example Smartbillions. Smartbillions is a lottery based on the blockchain technology and it the first fully decentralized and global lottery managed by Ethereum’s smart contract. Smartbillion stands against: “The greedy business models of ICOs with fraudulent intentions and unfair fund and token distribution schemes, which operate without genuine products behind them. We stand for fundamental blockchain values (decentralization, disintermediation, transparency, security and freedom), as well as comprehensive investor transparency.”
Another interesting example where blockchain technology is used is in the company Maersk. Maersk is a major nautical company. They experimented with using blockchain technology in there loading and unloading processes. Normally they need up to 30 to process all the information regarding this process but this won’t be necessary any longer with the blockchain technology. This process will be more efficient and fully automated.
If you are interested in a further explanation of this topic I recommend you to watch the following TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RplnSVTzvnU#action=share

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How digitital marketing technologies lead to a social redistribution of income

24

September

2017

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After reading the article “Pricing Information” (Shapiro et al, 1998) I realised that new digital marketing technologies and pricing strategies lead to the redistribution of income without government interference.

The article outlines the importance of knowing your customer and personalising your product in order to successfully implement a differentiation strategy as an online company. New digital marketing technologies offer many new opportunities to gain relevant customer information which can be used to differentiate your price and your offer to specific customers. These technologies have in common that they are based on the principle of data collection and data analysis. Examples from these technologies are the use of cookies, mouse tracking or location tracking. When you are buying a flight ticket when you live a rich neighbourhood, while using an Apple Macbook on the same site where you bought flight tickets earlier it is very likely that you receive a more expensive offer for the exact same flight as someone who uses a Dell laptop and lives in a generally poorer area.
This development, in my opinion, has a positive side effect on the distribution of income. In many countries governments are interfering in the free markets, for example by applying taxes, in order to realise a social redistribution of income. Rich people end up paying more taxes than poorer people. There is a lot of criticism from different political views about how fair this government interference is. Liberal parties are usually the ones who want to change this system because the think it is not fair to charge rich people with a higher tax percentage than poorer people. With the new technological developments enabling companies to apply personalised pricing policies the situation arises that a redistribution of income in a social way occurs without government interference and thus can’t be criticised by people who support the liberal political view. I am very interested in the opinion of people with a liberal political view on how fair they consider this new development. For me it is a funny that a pricing policy which in very much in line with the liberal view on business leads to a social system where rich people end up paying more for the exact same product as poorer people.

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