Blockchain Business Case
Outline, discuss and illustrate a specific business case where Blockchain technology could disrupt the existing business ecosystem.
Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt many existing business ecosystems especially within sectors that are heavily reliant on costly paper based records. The legal services industry is one of the few industries which has remained largely unchanged since the dawn of the internet but Blockchain has the potential to drive change in the industry. One specific business case where the use of Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt the existing business ecosystem is the business of managing and executing an individual’s last will and testament.
In today’s ecosystem the majority of consumers require a solicitor for all ‘last will’ related activities. This includes creating the will, making changes to the will and especially overseeing the execution of the will after the individual has …show more content…
passed away. Although a solicitor will likely always be recommended to provide advice during the creation of a will other activities such as managing (making changes) and executing the ‘last will’ could be handled using applications built on Blockchain technology. In the current ecosystem the solicitor acts as a middle man in the process and by reducing the involvement of legal professionals the cost to the consumer could be greatly reduced. This however is just one of the benefits of utilising Blockchain technology to manage an individual’s final will. As with many of the potential Blockchain applications the real value of the technology comes from the reliability of the data stored on the Blockchain.
Using Blockchain technology an individual’s last will could be recorded as a ‘smart contract’ which can be stored on a distributed ledger. A benefit of the smart contract is that it can contain pre-defined instructions which it can automatically execute when triggered. The trigger in this example would be the death of the individual. As soon as the death is recorded and confirmed the smart contract could performs all of the actions contained within the will.
Business people are beginning to see the opportunity Blockchain technology has created in this business ecosystem and in May 2015 a new Manhattan based startup, Blockchain Apparatus, was created. In the near future the company plans to release a Blockchain technology based software/network combination which will act as the executor of the decedent's last will and testament. Eric Dixon, one of the company’s legal advisors believes that “The Blockchain will or broader Blockchain document goes to the heart of most family and surrogates’ court litigation. It provides better evidence of the actual intent, at a definable, fixed time, of the person making the will”
Blockchain won’t solve all will-related litigation but it could be a huge help in overseeing challenges to the genuineness of a will.
Individuals will still maintain their ‘due process right’ to have his or her day in court but Dixon believes what the Blockchain can do “is make it much easier for a genuine will to be upheld, for a bogus challenge to be dismissed, and for courts to come to factual findings much more quickly.”
So what the Blockchain does offer in legal cases is an improvement in the quality and admissibility of evidence. It changes/disrupts the litigation process. The current process requires a degree of trust in old documents, uncertain signatures, uncertain notarizations and uncertainty over the existence of any subsequent documents such as revised wills. A Blockchain system could remove much of this uncertainty with a consensus-based, decentralized system where wills are deposited, where the identity of the depositor, the time of the deposit and the “original state” of the document are all confirmed and
preserved.
The company considers the “original state” feature crucial, because the blockchain's consensus-based security means old data is never lost or overwritten.
“This is a fantastic protection against fraud, false statements and other malfeasance,’ offered Dixon. “Yet the technology allows for revisions, with each revision being stored in its own original state. It enhances the ability for swift justice without compromising legal due process. It offers a way to establish the genuineness of documentary evidence and protect evidence and data from being altered, hidden or destroyed.
“The technology makes it easier to prove the existence of a will or other document, because the blockchain preserves the record of its creation and submission to the blockchain. No more do you have to guess whether a will that ‘just shows up’ was signed five or ten years ago. The blockchain gives you solid and better evidence.
“But if you’re a crook, you’re going to hate our technology. It’s going to be really hard to fudge things on the blockchain.”
Discuss
Middle men – solicitor
Witnesses
Removes conflicting version issues
Highlight some of the negatives – why might this not be a good idea
Illustrate
Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt many existing business ecosystems especially within sectors that are heavily reliant on costly paper based records. The legal services industry is one of the few industries which has remained largely unchanged since the dawn of the internet but Blockchain has the potential to drive change in the industry. One specific business case where the use of Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt the existing business ecosystem is the business of managing and executing an individual’s last will and testament.
In today’s ecosystem the majority of consumers require a solicitor for all ‘last will’ related activities. This includes creating the will, making changes to the will and especially overseeing the execution of the will after the individual has …show more content…
passed away. Although a solicitor will likely always be recommended to provide advice during the creation of a will other activities such as managing (making changes) and executing the ‘last will’ could be handled using applications built on Blockchain technology. In the current ecosystem the solicitor acts as a middle man in the process and by reducing the involvement of legal professionals the cost to the consumer could be greatly reduced. This however is just one of the benefits of utilising Blockchain technology to manage an individual’s final will. As with many of the potential Blockchain applications the real value of the technology comes from the reliability of the data stored on the Blockchain.
Using Blockchain technology an individual’s last will could be recorded as a ‘smart contract’ which can be stored on a distributed ledger. A benefit of the smart contract is that it can contain pre-defined instructions which it can automatically execute when triggered. The trigger in this example would be the death of the individual. As soon as the death is recorded and confirmed the smart contract could performs all of the actions contained within the will.
Business people are beginning to see the opportunity Blockchain technology has created in this business ecosystem and in May 2015 a new Manhattan based startup, Blockchain Apparatus, was created. In the near future the company plans to release a Blockchain technology based software/network combination which will act as the executor of the decedent's last will and testament. Eric Dixon, one of the company’s legal advisors believes that “The Blockchain will or broader Blockchain document goes to the heart of most family and surrogates’ court litigation. It provides better evidence of the actual intent, at a definable, fixed time, of the person making the will”
Blockchain won’t solve all will-related litigation but it could be a huge help in overseeing challenges to the genuineness of a will.
Individuals will still maintain their ‘due process right’ to have his or her day in court but Dixon believes what the Blockchain can do “is make it much easier for a genuine will to be upheld, for a bogus challenge to be dismissed, and for courts to come to factual findings much more quickly.”
So what the Blockchain does offer in legal cases is an improvement in the quality and admissibility of evidence. It changes/disrupts the litigation process. The current process requires a degree of trust in old documents, uncertain signatures, uncertain notarizations and uncertainty over the existence of any subsequent documents such as revised wills. A Blockchain system could remove much of this uncertainty with a consensus-based, decentralized system where wills are deposited, where the identity of the depositor, the time of the deposit and the “original state” of the document are all confirmed and
preserved.
The company considers the “original state” feature crucial, because the blockchain's consensus-based security means old data is never lost or overwritten.
“This is a fantastic protection against fraud, false statements and other malfeasance,’ offered Dixon. “Yet the technology allows for revisions, with each revision being stored in its own original state. It enhances the ability for swift justice without compromising legal due process. It offers a way to establish the genuineness of documentary evidence and protect evidence and data from being altered, hidden or destroyed.
“The technology makes it easier to prove the existence of a will or other document, because the blockchain preserves the record of its creation and submission to the blockchain. No more do you have to guess whether a will that ‘just shows up’ was signed five or ten years ago. The blockchain gives you solid and better evidence.
“But if you’re a crook, you’re going to hate our technology. It’s going to be really hard to fudge things on the blockchain.”
Discuss
Middle men – solicitor
Witnesses
Removes conflicting version issues
Highlight some of the negatives – why might this not be a good idea
Illustrate