All Aboard the Block Train (chain)?

We’ve all seen those science fiction movies that depict a futuristic, electronic, seamless, cash free way of transacting between consumers and businesses. It’s here. Well almost.

There are proponents, opponents, fence sitters on the development and application of blockchain technology. Cashless economy is only one of them but it’s at the forefront of conversation. Here’s several interesting snippets to wet your feet.

• Nine of the world’s biggest banks join to form blockchain partnership
• The cashless society is a creepy fantasy
• Block chain applications

I have been following this conversation for some time now and one of the older concepts is “triple ledger accounting”. Typical bean-counter right?

In a nutshell, traditional accounting requires double ledger meaning that at least two entries are required to record each financial transaction. The third ledger then becomes an encrypted digital receipt of the transaction which allows both buyer/seller to have an undeniable record that the transaction occurred. One extension of this concept in a cashless economy for SMEs is that transactions can be made, automatically captured and verified in your integrated accounting system. Do we still need independent audits? Real time financial data for small businesses? Improved lending since the ability and propensity to repay is tangible and observable? The flow on effect is limitless – think “bigger” data.

There are so many unknowns/questions/fear to many right now it’s a little like that blue pill, red pill scene from the Matrix.

I’m keen to see how deep the rabbit hole goes – where do you stand?
 

– Adrian

Adrian Lai,  Managing Director of Cornerstone HK. Passion for challenging the community to find smarter, leaner, scalable ways to solve business and social problems.