Behavioral Economics, Psychology, Money management and more: 5 recent book reads and key insights
While we are grappling with this difficult pandemic situation, I decided to utilize this time to dabble into my old love for reading books and took a resolution to finish reading 52 books this year. I started this bold journey with reading/listening to these 5 books. The following blog shares my analysis of the key…
The Next Generation of Charity – Savor Empowered by BlockChain
Executive Summary To increase the efficiency and transparency of the material donations to fight against the Coronavirus in China, I suggest using blockchain technology to establish a new business model to eliminate the intermediate and allow peer to peer transactions. I name the project as Saver. The vision for Saver is to digitalize information and…
The fight of Peruvian fintech against cash economy
Informality in Peru represents 40%[1] of the economy with an approximate value of US$ 89 billion or US$ 7k per capita considering 2018 GDP values [2]. Even though the Peruvian government has made many efforts to fight informality and try to bring people to the formal economy, the policies haven’t work as expected since informality…
Putting the “Ai” in “RetAiL” with a String of Blockchain!
Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated by the sheer amount of joy retail purchases brought to the faces of my loved ones (including myself). Neither did I understand the endless intricacies that retailers endeavoured in order to get a product to shelf for sale/consumption, nor did I ever envision a career in…
Cloud Kitchens: Disrupting the Millenia-Old Restaurant Industry
Here’s a riddle for you: On Friday, you order pasta rigatoni from Luigi’s Pasta. On Saturday, you order butter chicken from Sita’s Kitchen. And on Sunday, you order the impossibly scrumptious #8 combo – Big Ben’s Explosion with cheesy fries – from Big Ben’s Burgers. However, they all come from the same kitchen – what’s…
CommonBond, Inc. – Profitability with Purpose
Anand Kumar, a young mathematics marvel from India, was once given an opportunity to study at one of the most prestigious schools of the world, University of Cambridge, after publishing a paper on number theory on the Mathematical Spectrum and Mathematical Gazette (1). After receiving this prestigious offer, Anand went to multiple sources including the…
A New Kind of Education
Previously education could only be accessed in formal classrooms, learning was centralized and controlled the government or another governing body. However, the educational system is beginning to become decentralized, the widespread adoption of technology has given way to a new era of education, E-learning. E-learning is an architectural innovation to the education system and has…
Unbundling Storage: Can Small Online Retailers Compete with Amazon?
Jenny’s Candle Shop, a fictional digital store, faces increased demand from its customers across the country who want their candles right away. Will a decentralized supply chain solution solve Jenny’s conundrum? A well-known component of any business, supply chains are meant to depict the flow of value from its source to its consumer. In their…
Decentralization of Health Services: Community-Based Healthcare
Healthcare in Canada has been at a pivotal moment in recent years, with decentralization of services and digital transformation being key themes in these changes. The current healthcare system has been in existence is the mid-1980s, but now, it struggles to meet the demands of today’s population. Decentralization of healthcare services has been a focus…
Re-imagining Residential Real Estate
The buying process within the residential real estate market can be long, tedious, opaque and costly. As such, real estate agents are often engaged to help navigate the complexity of the transaction. However, new technologies have emerged that can potentially disrupt the real estate industry, through the decentralization of the database that provides real estate…
Can blockchain innovation create real value in the strange economy of a refugee camp?
Assessing multi-level value creation and performance in humanitarian aid In the current hyper-globalized landscape, frontier technologies like blockchain can promise a wealth of material progress. But it can be challenging to balance considerations of economic value with those of a more human nature. Fortunately, the United Nations’ vast portfolio of blockchain efforts offers just the…
Leveraging Digital Identity for Economic Growth
In 2018, many data breaches occurred across the world causing financial loses. According to World Economic Forum report in 2016 titled “A Blueprint for Digital Identity”- ineffective identity systems create global challenges for people, business and society. With proper use of blockchain backed Digital Identity (Digital ID) in emerging and mature markets, economic values can be created…
Revolutionising Health Care Service Delivery In the Developing World
Mariam Bibi lives in a village in one of the most impoverished provinces of Pakistan i.e. Sindh. She suffers from acute poverty (below the poverty line of $1.90 a day). Living in a remote village and a conservative society just adds to her challenges, and she can barely access appropriate health services – which is…
Mumbai Dabbawalla’s: Decentralisation through innovation
Background: Mumbai, the financial capital of the world’s second largest democracy, is home to a working population of 5.21 Million people. Often referred to as the city which never sleeps, Mumbai alone contributes to 6.61% towards India’s GDP. It is estimated that an average Mumbaikar travels 18 km’s on way to office every day, navigating…
Strava: How an Addictive, Decentralized Platform is Single-Handedly Monetizing Social Fitness
On Strava, you are an instant athlete within the broad spectrum of ‘athlete’; your every move is tracked and logged, and you transform your regular activity instantly from amateur to elevated with access to high tech stats and tracking that is all too seamlessly linked to your tracking devices. The addiction and podium climbing itch…
Decentralisation: Disrupting e-commerce
As a 90s kid, I grew up looking forward to weekends when we’d go to the mall to hang out with friends and maybe compel our parents to buy us something. But as I observe the teenagers today, that is hardly where most of the shopping happens. Digital age introduced us to a new way…
Blockchain-Backed Electronic Medical Records: The Transformation of Healthcare
Background Healthcare has historically been a centralized industry, particularly in single-payer countries like Canada. Defined within the Canada Health Act is the rule of public administration, which has led most provinces to have a central decision-making authority, such as the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care (MOHLTC). Furthermore, from a patient perspective, healthcare is…
Driving into a Decentralized Future
Throughout its history, the automotive industry has been remained relatively un-disrupted, with the majority of the control staying with the major automakers in the industry. While Tesla disrupted the traditional model for manufacturing, selling, maintaining, and updating cars – the control has simply shifted from other manufacturers to Tesla. While there is a large amount…
Democratizing information exchange through Web 3.0
Have you ever thought what happens to your online account passwords and other personal information which you share over the Internet? In this age of net neutrality, all of us believe in the power of internet being a free (apart from the ISP fees) and unlimited resource for information exchange. In other words, we perceive…
Cutting out the Middle-Man: Decentralized Ad Networks
Advertising Tsunami The Global Advertising Industry, currently at $563B annual spend[i], effects humans in a massive way – It is estimated that consumers get exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 ads every single day[ii]! With such an overwhelming amount of exposure to ads, humans are screening which brands to engage with and which brands to…
Decentralization, the better future for Mobility as a Service(MaaS)
What is MaaS? Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a recent emerged business model in the transportation sector that have been gaining attraction in the last few years. There are many visions of it, but most include a usership-based, personalised, end-to-end transport service, via any mode(s), with a single payment and hassle-free journey planning and management. It integrates various…
Edge Computing: Decentralized Cloud / Intelligent IoT
Edge Computing: Decentralised Cloud / Intelligent IoT Image Source: https://www.vology.com/resource/benefits-of-edge-computing/ Imagine a world where all the devices around you are connected to a central cloud. Your smart glasses capture the data in an augmented reality environment helping you train and learn a new skill, such as skiing. Also, the smart watch on your wrist monitors…
After Open Banking, Open Retailing is Coming | How will you Adapt?
By Alisha Gautam February 10, 2020 Barneys New York, Forever 21 and Avenue are just a few of the many retailers that filed for bankruptcy in 2019. The failures of these retail empires offer an important lesson: “Don’t rest on your laurels”. No matter how big the retailer is, failing to innovate and change as…
A Quick Guide To Revolutionise Governance In Developing Countries
Most public sector challenges arise out of deciding the most efficient resource allocation between competing options. Should the government spend more on education, healthcare or infrastructure projects? And even within a sector, what kind of resource allocation would make most sense? Take healthcare as an example. Governments must decide if it is more prudent to…
VR and Blockchain: An Emerging Frontier
Technological innovation at the intersection of decentralized public ledgers like Blockchain, and virtual reality systems, has over the last decade increasingly emerged as a new frontier of unexplored potential. While still in its infancy, applications derived from these technologies are already dramatically impact the gaming, teaching, and corporate world, as this article will detail. A…
Blockchain Promises to Empower Patients and Fuel Interoperability
A “shared care record” that optimizes the health of individuals and populations worldwide: such is the vision of interoperability. Interoperability refers to the architecture or standards making it easier for various healthcare providers to exchange patient information across various EHR (electronic health records) systems. As Dr. Farzad Mostashari, former Health I.T. National Coordinator at the…
Introducing Blockchain to the Courtrooms; Improving ‘Timely’ Access to Justice
“One sector, however, has carried on as if technology had never been invented: the law. Lawyers’ working practices ‘have not changed much since the time of Charles Dickens’” The Future of the Professions’[i] What is Access to Justice: The United Nation Sustainable Goal 16 aims for equal access to justice for all.[ii] Rule of law…
Twitter: Decentralizing News or Fiction?
It’s been only two decades since online social media really came into our lives. But who knew that as these platforms would become bigger and turn mainstream, they would revolutionize how communicate with each other! Today, these platforms are not only used by an average person, but have also found use by businesses, governments, politicians,…
UULALA: LINKING BLOCKCHAIN TO FINANCIAL INCLUSION
Witnessing his mother suffer without access to a bank account, Oscar Garcia, Uulala’s CEO, identified the need for banking solutions for Latin Americas. With approximately 210 million unbanked adults in Latin America and 23 million in America (Source: Access Wire), Uulala’s mission is “to empower the unbanked through sustainable inclusion in the formal economy with…
Blockchain for your flying woes
It’s December 18th and you’re at Toronto Pearson International Airport waiting for your flight to go home for the holidays. You are waiting patiently in the slightly uncomfortable chairs in boarding area for gate 68. The class division is visible as crowds begin to form in clusters for their appropriate boarding zone lines – 5…
Are we there yet? Blockchain adoption for Supply Chains
Let’s address the elephant in the room. Blockchain technology has gained popularity over the past 10-15 years especially after Satoshi Nakamoto’s paper in 2008 on Bitcoin. Yet, when it comes to implementations of the blockchain in supply chains, there has been limited success stories beyond rare proof of concept initiatives by major industry players such…
AI Powers Swimming into the World of Decentralization
For those of you unfamiliar with the sport of competitive swimming, there are three main elements to race preparation: the taper, the shave and above-all, the downright hard work. But over the past few years, swimmers are making room for an addition to their typical training armamentarium – artificial intelligence powered performance analysis tools. In…
It’s Always Sunny in Saskatchewan
At the end of the 19th century, a technological battle for electricity dominance took place; Edison’s direct current (DC) electricity versus Tesla’s alternating current (AC) electricity. The result of the industry pioneers’ battle determined which electricity type would be used in power grids around the globe. The battle concluded due to a differing trait; DC…
Transforming Care Provision Through Decentralization
The Canadian healthcare system was designed to be a social public healthcare system, providing care to all citizens equally. However, with the evolving times, a number of challenges have begun to hinder the system from successfully meeting the needs of Canadian residents. Using a combination of new technologies such as AI, remote monitoring devices, and…
DoorDash, SkipTheDishes, UberEats – which to choose?
With Valentine’s Day coming up during the cold winter, don’t you want to just stay indoor with your significant other and avoid the crowd at restaurants? Whether you are single or not, online food delivery services can play a key role in your food options and provide convenient access to meals. Afterall, the question of…
Moving Spare Parts to the Cloud
As all industries throughout the world continuously pursue efficiency in their operations, they all face a similar issue; How to avoid downtime and reduce costs. For centuries the answer has been a variation of stocking critical spare parts or establishing service contracts with those who would be able to supply said parts as soon as…
Decentralization in Canadian Equity Markets: A Deep Dive into Dark Pools
A Brief History of Canadian Equity Markets Historically, stock exchanges have been the dominant venue for trading equities in most places throughout the world. Before 2001, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) was the only senior equity marketplace in Canada. In the 1990s, market participants began to express concerns that the TSX’s monopoly status reduced its…
Decentralization of Maintenance in Dark Factories
It is 4:20 a.m. in South Island, New Zealand and a part in a robotic welder operating in a dark factory in South Island will fail in the next 12-hours. The robotic welder was designed, manufactured and installed by Butt Joint Inc. whose main factory is in Alaska, USA. Because of the level of advancement…
Get your trash blockchained!
What is the issue with the waste value chain and who pays for treating waste? We’ve all been witnesses of the visual damage that waste creates to our environment when not properly disposed of, but when waste is out of our sight, we tend to believe it is someone else’s problem. Little do we realize…
The Early Days of Decentralization – The Mumbai Dabbawala Service Story
The practical implementation of decentralization in systems has been around from the early days of industrialization, even though the official coining of the term and its study are far more recent. The Mumbai dabbawala story is a testament to the concept of decentralizing processes without the use of modern technology. A key aspect of study…
Is Blockchain the Answer to Data Privacy?
In 2019, an estimated 28 million Canadians were affected by at least one of the country’s 680 reported data breaches.i That’s over 70% of the Canadian population – this is a major problem particularly as the world becomes more digital. Transparency and Changing Regulations In late 2018, Canadian businesses became subject to new regulation that…
Public Sector – Decentralized.
With the acceptance of digital modes of communication increasing rapidly, governments have also started to adapt and communicate to the citizens via smart digital channels. A report by McKinsey suggests that government organizations have a lot of value to capture by implementing digital ways of doing their day to day businesses. About $1 trillion can…
A platform economy for farmers
We’ve heard about how Uber has reshaped the taxi industry and how Airbnb is giving established hotels a run for their money. However, there is a group that is fundamental to the survival of our society, yet little is done to alleviate their economic woos. This group cultivates the food that we consume, from the…
Decentralization in the Insurance Industry
With the commercialization of innovations like blockchain, machine learning (ML), and open API, the insurance industry is facing a complete overhaul of the traditional business model. The responsibilities of brokers and underwriters are being increasingly automated, and value is shifting towards consumers and companies embracing these new technologies. First let’s take a look at the…
Decentralizing the Centralized Cloud
Since the last decade, cloud computing has received massive popularity among tech enterprises. Companies that had to spend sometimes millions of dollars on storage and servers, can now conveniently outsource such resources to cloud platforms and observe enormous cost savings. The cloud computing industry has seen massive growth rates; Gartner, predicts that the worldwide public…
#BeautyTech and the Future of Personalization
On March 16 2018, L’Oréal announced their acquisition of Modiface, an augmented reality beauty startup based in Toronto. Using artificial intelligence, the company’s software tracks your face and simulates different makeup or hair styles. L’Oréal Professionnel’s Style My Hair App is a great example of this technology and the use case is quite simple: Two…
Drop in the bucket? How blockchain technology could transform legacy energy sectors
Companies in the legacy energy sectors of oil, gas, and mining have been facing mounting criticism over the past decade as calls for swift and drastic action on climate change have intensified. While the world tries to find a balance between managing a rising global demand for energy and a daunting environmental crisis, these legacy…
Decentralizing the Cold-Chain: How Blockchain and IoT will Transform Bio-Pharmaceutical Shipping
Compared to most products, bio-pharmaceuticals require advanced shipping methods such as expedited delivery and temperature-controlled shipping due to their temperature sensitivity and biological properties (Freight Waves, 2018, National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2018). In 2019, the global bio-pharmaceutical shipping industry reached $15.7 billion, with sales of all temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals (the “cold chain”) expected to grow…
Decentralizing the web
By: Keaton Ross When discussing decentralized technologies people often refer to the internet as the mecca or beginning of it all. I have heard people cite the freedom and accessibility of the internet as features that make it such, but I submit that the internet is not nearly as decentralized as it is claimed to…
Decentralized Transportation Systems
Computer networks of the past were highly siloed and hence, centralized. In centralized systems, the users are tightly controlled to streamline the process or product. The data is also hidden and not shared with everyone. Then the internet emerged and introduced a set of protocols. These protocols defined how data should be transferred and received.…
Blockchain can save Cold Chains!
When we purchase a product at a near-by store, not many of give much thought to how or where that product came from. Who cares? We are more excited about experiencing that product! However, it is incredible to see how far that product has traveled the world and how many hands it has changed in…
Robinhood Financial: shaking up the world of commission-based investing
By Brendan O’Sullivan Investopedia defines a ‘decentralized market’ as one in which “technology enables investors to deal directly with each other instead of operating from within a centralized exchange.” (1) New investment trading app Robinhood is adding to the growing number of online trading platforms forming a new decentralized investment market. Founders Tenev and Bhatt,…
Decentralized Finance
The impact of decentralized financial services Over time, technological developments and their rapid adoption, and today, the decentralized financial system have made wealth-building tools more accessible to everyone. The internet created an underlying pipeline for global communication, the proliferation of smartphones created an opportunity for the financial service institution to provide faster and more convenient…
Decentralization in Medicine
Industry application of 3D printing Since the early 2000s, 3D printing has marched steadily from the corporate labs and academic institutions to design and manufacturing circles. It has been rising in popularity since the first “off the shelf” printer was made available in 2009. The usage of 3D printers has gone beyond producing prototypes, they…
Decentralized Finance – A Movement that Re-thinks the Way we Finance
So What Is Decentralized Finance or De-Fi for Short? De-Fi is an ecosystem of financial applications that are built on top of blockchain networks. Traditionally, finance is highly regulated by the government and is conducted through a central entity, the central bank. Central Banks around the world regulate the economy through the use of monetary…
Ontario’s energy infrastructure in the age of decentralization
For as long as I can remember, politics in Ontario have been dogged by the debate on energy policy. Politicians of all stripes have made it commonplace to sling mud at their predecessors for failed energy planning and policy initiatives, firmly placing the blame on the opposition for increasing energy prices at the meter, increasing…
Decentralization as a Catalyst for Growth: Kaizen Strategy & Startup Structure
In my Communications Undergraduate Studies, we often discussed the moment in which humanity’s true potential began its acceleration: the advent of the printing press. It made information accessible to the masses instead of held only by the elite. Humans’ capacity to learn and build on its learnings accelerated as we were no longer bound by…
Can Blockchain Re-Shape Charity?
Source: (Yuan, 2020) “Why are doctors still without protective gear after so many donations? Is Wuhan a black hole? (Ma, 2020)” The Wuhan Red Cross in China has became the target of public anger during the battle with Coronavirus, as the donations of crucial medical supplies from across China failed to arrive at the hospitals on the front…
ICOs: Why they should be regulated
2019 was a terrible year for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), there were only 109 ICOs and raised funds for the equivalent amount of USD 371,209,025. This amount was 95% lower than the total funds raised in 2018 (USD 7,812,150,041)[1]. The possible reasons behind this dramatic decline in ICOs are actions taken by regulators in different countries, the…
A Chain for a Chain: a New Future for Supply Chain Management
On Oct 25th, 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out during the 18th collective study session of the political bureau of the CPC central committee that blockchain technology and industrial innovation should be accelerated, and integrating blockchain into economic and social development should be actively promoted. This indicates that blockchain has been recognized by the…
Decentralized: 3D Organ Printing
By: Liam Murphy Individuals who require an organ transplant will tell you: the process is timely, costly, and typically lifesaving. With over 4,351 people currently on the waitlist for organ transplants, in Canada alone, the need for intervention has never been more crucial. To assist those who are in dire need of a transplant, the…
Moving to the Clouds: Tradition POS vs Cloud-Based POS
You walk up to your favourite coffee shop to grab a quick bite and as you stop to order you notice that somethings different. Where there used to be a bulky, cathode-ray driven, monitor staring at you as you ordered, now it’s a tablet, perched on a modern little stand. Rather than fighting with a…
The Dawn of Decentralized Digital Identity
By Samantha Pereira With our digital and physical lives blurring into a single integrated way of living, now more than ever do we need a trusted way to prove we are who we say we are both online and offline. In the physical world, we prove our identity using a driver’s license, passport or other…
Implications of 5G Technology in the burgeoning world of Blockchain
From the home telephone to cellphones, technological advancements and subsequent adoption rates have seen exponential growth. In the most recent developments, the burgeoning 5G wireless technology is poised to replace the aging 4G infrastructure. Meanwhile, blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is rapidly being integrated in multiple aspects of every day life. This post will explore the…
Diamonds, Decentralized: An Exploration of Blockchain Technology and The Diamond Industry
Diamonds have long been considered a symbol of everlasting love, commitment, and romance; however, a diamonds past is rarely flawless. The value chain of the diamond has long been fraught with complexities and controversy, and continues to drive issues in the supply chain from mining to retail. With the rising popularity of decentralized technologies and…
Etherisc: Making Insurance Fair and Accessible Through Decentralization
Decentralization of Insurance Applications
Decentralized AI
Rise of AI Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for a while, it was formally founded in 1956 at a conference at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, where the term “artificial intelligence” was coined. However, while the basic proof of principle was there, there was still a long way to go before the end…
The Impact of Decentralized Business Models on Society.
The spread of decentralized platforms means a dramatic shift away from a reliance on traditional institutions for the creation of trust needed to complete a host of business services. Services that rely on the establishment of trust between two unknown partners, such as banking, insurance and payment-processing are ripe for upheaval. Decentralized platforms are able…
Big Waves in the Shipping Industry
Shipping is quietly undergoing huge technological changes that bring cutting-edge IoT sensors and satellites to the age-old industry of high seas shipping. This industry has historically lagged behind others in terms of adapting to new technologies, despite being responsible for carrying 90% of the entire world’s traded goods (https://tinyurl.com/htwdqe4). The issues that this industry drowns…
Strategy in the Age of Decentralization 