The Future of Exchanging Value Cryptocurrencies and the trust economy 27
It’s widely accepted that digital technology is reshaping A more secure wallet
the business and social landscapes through what’s
Incumbents and FinTech start-ups are now
commonly referred to as ‘digital disruption’. Monopolies focusing heavily on the challenge of creating a
and even entire industries are being toppled, creating more secure and convenient payment experience
new winners and losers. By far the most obvious
using digital technology. The desire is to create a
winners so far have been consumers.
smartphone-hosted virtual wallet to move
transactions from the physical to the virtual world
First, the emergence of the consumer Internet has
by replacing plastic cards with cryptography.
reversed the historical information asymmetry that
allowed firms to assume they were more informed than
Technology has streamlined the checkout experience
consumers. The firms were able to use their superior
incrementally. The first mechanical cash register – the knowledge of prices and sources of products to shape
Ritty Model I, cal ed Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier – was customer behaviour, guiding the consumer to products
developed in 1879 and patented in 1883 by James
the merchant favoured at the expense of the customer’s Ritty and John Birch. Designed to stop employee theft, preferences. However, consumers are now better
the Ritty Model I was little more than an adding
informed and can find either the cheapest or best
machine and cash drawer, with a bell to be rung to
products (at the best prices) from a global pool of
mark a sale and alert the business owner (with prices
merchants. One fairly immediate result has been the
set slightly off whole values so staff were forced to use death of many mid-market products and firms as
the cash register to provide change). Computing
consumers are no longer forced to compromise.
technology has been chipping away further at the
processes, making sales more secure and convenient.
Second, smartphones and social media have enabled
consumers to rely on peer recommendations rather than
The cash register became digital in the early 1970s
brand promises. The information consumers use to
with the IBM 3650 and 3660 store systems, which
shape their decisions now comes from the opinions of
could control up to 128 IBM 3653/3663 point of sale
peers – the other individuals in their social graph
(PoS) registers, electronically tying the tills (the
– rather than from communications from firms.
clients) to the store accounting systems (the server).
Companies are finding that any unsavoury practices
William Brobeck and Associates introduced
in their supply chain are soon uncovered and
microprocessors at McDonald’s Restaurants in
revealed to the world. It is also no longer possible to 1974, where each station in the restaurant had its
crowd out smaller organisations and prevent them
own device displaying the entire order for a
from communicating with customers, or to prevent
customer, which streamlined the ordering process.
customers discovering competing products and
services. This puts a small deli or café on an equal
footing with a multinational franchise.
However you expect the world to evolve, and
whichever of these scenarios you think is the most
likely, it is clear that consumer preference will be a significant factor in shaping this future.
