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Introduced Ethereum to my Company (self.ethereum)

_KnownUnknowns_ が 投稿

...and was met with, "Is this from Star Wars?" I had an opportunity at my company to deliver a 30 minute presentation to executive staff and the entire accounting department on a topic I think that will affect our business in the future. I decided to present an overview of the Ethereum blockchain and the benefits it will have for my company and our industry. I'd like to think I'm a decent presenter, but it went terribly. Not only could no one wrap their head around a global distributed ledger, but no one could see how it will be adopted. It was the worst received presentation I've ever given in my life.

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[–]DamosDaze 296 ポイント297 ポイント  (14子コメント)

Bullish.

[–]ZergShotgunAndYou 58 ポイント59 ポイント  (12子コメント)

Indeed,i suppose this is his CEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U
it's the "it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard" mentality.
Stay strong OP,the poor reception you had with your presentation simply means either they are in denial or simply can't grasp the fundamentals of the tech and therefore will get steamrolled by it(seeing as you say you're in a field that stand to benefit from adoption of the blockchain).

[–]NewEthereumGuy 63 ポイント64 ポイント  (10子コメント)

Also possible (don't hate me) that OP didn't sufficiently understand the topic to be able to respond to the inevitable questions. Talking about blockchain tech is not easy. The important thing in such a talk would be to laser-focus on how it would save your company money, in very concrete and easy to understand terms. That is hard.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 46 ポイント47 ポイント  (9子コメント)

No hate here. I'm not technical, nor is anyone in my company. Degree of difficulty was super high and I definitely didn't stick the landing. I'll give myself an A for effort though.

[–]NewEthereumGuy 35 ポイント36 ポイント  (8子コメント)

If nobody in the company is technical, I don't see how your company could make use of blockchain tech, unless it's prepackaged into an easy-to-use service.

[–]tjones0808 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (6子コメント)

Hire contractors to develop whatever business enterprise block chain software they need for their business?

[–]NewEthereumGuy 17 ポイント18 ポイント  (5子コメント)

That would require them to understand the underlying use cases of the technology. Even hiring contractors would be a bridge too far without some expertise in-house.

Example: your mother in-law hires contractors to build a blockchain app to store her cookie recipes. Pro: Now she has a blockchain app that stores cookie recipies. Con: Now she has a blockchain app that stores cookie recipes.

[–]JakeLifts 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (2子コメント)

You can research the advantages of something without understanding the underlying technology. I can tell you the use cases for a GPU but I couldn't even start to build one to save my life.

[–]NewEthereumGuy 15 ポイント16 ポイント  (1子コメント)

I have to disagree with you here - at the current level of abstraction that blockchain tech exists at today. It's easy for a layman to understand the implications of a car, even if we've never seen one before. It's a finished product. It's not easy for the same person to understand the implications of a basic internal combustion engine if they've never seen one before. What we have today is like an OS, we don't have a full application stack yet.

[–]AZNman1111 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Well EtOS is a thing already haha

[–]Pyramidseq 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Brilliant.

[–]Anemonean 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

feeling verry bullish on RCP

[–]aced 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

They don't have to create the tool, just utilize it once it's made. That's what he's talking about.

[–]urbutt_ 8 ポイント9 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Everyone else is stupid but us bitcoiners, especially grown-ups.

[–]lems2 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

ROFL!

[–]Papazio 98 ポイント99 ポイント  (30子コメント)

I don't like it, but the best way I have found to get buyin (metaphorical attentional buyin, not money) is to name drop the shit out of blockchain and then Ethereum. For example:

'Check out this explanatory infographic on blockchain by Deloitte, and this one by PwC.

Check out this flashy website on blockchain by GoldmanSachs.

Check out this 2015 report by the UK Gov's chief scientific advisor on Blockchain use, adoption, and future.

Check out what NASDAQ and Citi Group are doing with blockchains.

Check out what Toyota, Samsung, and Mitsubishi Finance are looking to do with the Ethereum Blockchain.

Check out all the other global companies who are part of the EEA.'

If I wasn't on mobile I'd have provided links.

[–]objectivix 132 ポイント133 ポイント  (6子コメント)

Deloitte

PxC

Goldman Sachs

UK CSA

NASDAQ + CITI

EEA

=)

[–]ProFalseIdol 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Check out what NASDAQ and Citi Group are doing with blockchains.

They've already deployed this live. This was announced in DC Blockchain Summit 2017.. I can't remember which specific video. They've been developing it for ~4-5 years.. so earlier than Ethereum.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (12子コメント)

Thanks. I probably could have spent more time on this. I only had 30 minutes so I spent a lot of time on the history (going back to Bell Labs), technology, security and future disruption. Discussed Bitcoin as Version 1.0 and Ethereum as Version 2.0 (I know this won't sit well with many, but I needed an easy metaphor given time constraints) and ended with EEA.

[–]Automne888 7 ポイント8 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Damn, reminds me of one of the presentations I did with a public that never heard about blockchains before.

The following time, I didn't bother talking about nonces, hash & blocks. Just said : "It's a magic book" and focused on applications with the perks. :')

[–]JustSomeBadAdvice 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

The following time, I didn't bother talking about nonces, hash & blocks. Just said : "It's a magic book" and focused on applications with the perks. :')

Yeah, never ever use the word hash or nonce in a learn-blockchains presentation to nontechnical people, and probably not even for most technical people. A better approach is talking about randomly selecting someone out of a crowd as the person to create a block. Proof of work then becomes paying for a chance to be picked, and the mining reward becomes the thing that would make someone wish to pay for a chance to be picked. If they ask who you're paying, clarify it is just burning the money, and that's fine because they get rewarded when they get picked, so it balances.

But even that much proved to be too much; If I'm not forced into it by questions, I'll use the "magic book" approach as well.

[–]JustSomeBadAdvice 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (3子コメント)

So, just so you know, I've tried giving a lot of presentations on Bitcoin. It took me four years and six full revisions before I could get a presentation that was met with less than 50% "deer in headlights" stares afterwards. Its so huge and such a leap of logic from everything else that existed before it.

If they get the economics of it, few of them get the implications of it. The only success I ever had there was in going from Gold -> Bitcoin, but that breaks down when they relate gold -> jewelry and ask about that, not to mention gold being a physical thing when at least "USD" is a conceptual idea, but gold still works better as a base because it is finite, inherently valued for arbitrary reasons, has variable values over time, and it is mined.

A few get confused as to why we would want Bitcoin in the first place. It can be answered but it adds time to the presentation; Comes down to trust violations and I show the different types of possible trust violations (Direct, Fraud, Devaluation). This may be skippable and may be beneficial to skip.

And then they ask the technical question. So you mean it prints money? That can't possibly work! How are bitcoins "mined" from math?? What's the math that they get paid for and who pays them?? I've found some reasonable analogies that help bridge the gap there, but it doesn't always work, I'll still get at least 40% deer-in-headlights. I have some better analogies for why mining works the way it does and why it is necessary, but I've never found a way to compress them into a presentation in under an hour.

And all that's just for Bitcoin. I'm a programmer and Ethereum took me 100x longer to wrap my head around myself, and has many parts I still haven't wrapped my head around. I can't imagine trying to do both in one presentation with any effectiveness at all; If they don't understand bitcoin/blockchains, they will not understand Ethereum - at all.

The final trick I settled on was covering the history of money, accounting, and ledgers (2 slides; 5 minutes) and then the trick that reduced me from 80% glazed stares to only 40% - Phone books(Thanks old guy who threw that question at me one time!). Phone books were similar to Blockchains in that everyone had a copy, and also in that they received periodic updates. Phone books could be implemented trustlessly in the real world if we had a way to verify someone's signatures. Each entry in a phone book is akin to a transaction, and each page in a phone book is akin to a block. Add in photocopiers for changes to pages and it begins to make a lot more sense. Make the phone book company evil & trying to charge money for every single telephone lookup and suddenly you have a motivation for all the extra work. Then tie the phone book back to the ledger. When discussing the ledger, never use whole numbers; you want to subtly communicate to them that "half a bitcoin" is totally normal. Usually someone will ask after you put it in.

It's not a perfect analogy, but it is as close as I've managed to get so far. I would never try to go from there to Ethereum; they'll need 2-3 weeks to process how blockchains work first.

When they ask about mining, I try to put off the question if at all possible, because I'm going to lose 70% of the people the moment I go into it. But when I am forced to go into it, or if I'm discussing 1 on 1 with someone who is able to follow me, the analogy for mining is letting math randomly select from a crowd; The random selection prevents dishonest people from manipulating the result. The "cost" of mining prevents someone from being picked more often than they should, and the reward from mining - also how all numbers on the "ledger" originated - is what makes someone care enough to pay that cost.

Hope that helps for the future!

[–]manly_ 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (1子コメント)

If you tried to explain what money is to someone that never used it, you would sound like an alien. No amount of terminology will make it simple to explain fungibility and many concepts related to money. BlockChains are a bit of the same. You can do so many things with them but until they have an actual clear use case it won't click easily. And it sure isn't helping that we don't have one of these yet.

[–]JustSomeBadAdvice 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

If you tried to explain what money is to someone that never used it, you would sound like an alien. No amount of terminology will make it simple to explain fungibility and many concepts related to money.

Yep, but fortunately people do use money, and words like "fungibility" can be avoided or expressed in examples instead of jargon.

What I found helped for me, though I didn't get explicit feedback that it helped for others, was to show the history of money in chronological terms:

  1. Obsidian(12,000 B.C.)
  2. Grain (9000 B.C.)
  3. Gold (4000 B.C.)
  4. Coins (1000 B.C.)
  5. Written Bills of Exchange (118 B.C.)
  6. BankNotes (700 A.D.)
  7. Ledgers (1299 A.D.)
  8. Government Dollars (1609 A.D.)

I then mention formal accounting(1824 A.D.), computerized accounting, and then stick "Blockchain technology" under that and stick "Bitcoin" under commodities (Just after Rum being used as a commodity-currency in Australia in the 1800's, always gets a laugh). To avoid overwhelming people with the information all at once, I introduce it stepwise. It seems to have helped.

BlockChains are a bit of the same. You can do so many things with them but until they have an actual clear use case it won't click easily. And it sure isn't helping that we don't have one of these yet.

Well yeah, but with Blockchains we have at least one use-case - Trustless money. We'll get more eventually.

[–]Papazio 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Sounds like the 'story of blockchains and ethereum' approach was a good idea. People like stories. Maybe they got a bit hung up on the tech?

I'm not a programmer and not really v.geeky in the grand scheme of things. But I'm an uber geek to my colleagues because of my industry. With that label comes trust in the analogies that I use to explain things like blockchains. Its a bit lonely though, therefore I spend a lot of time here.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Thanks, I'm in a very similar position at my firm. The tech was tough for everyone to wrap their minds around. I also think the disruption of major cornerstones of our economy (banks, accountants, equity exchanges, notaries, land title, etc...) was a little too much too soon.

[–]Papazio 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I know what you mean!

I explained to some friends on a night out who were very receptive, mostly because another mate had independently been interested. Once I explained cryptocurrencies, they were like; 'well thats it then, its the end of banks'.

To be fair, when I was first getting in to it I was like that too. Now I hope for a slow and smooth transition, disruption and disintermediation doesn't have to be chaos.

Good luck on your next presentation and discussions! Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[–]demonicsmileyface 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Whenever I mention bitcoin in connection to ethereum when attempting to describe it to someone, they immediately come back with "so, it's for drug dealers?"

[–]Papazio 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Reply: "Is cash only for drug dealers?"

[–]fred303 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

this is how references build trust. a customer doesn't know you or your company but he might know the people or companies you worked with/for.

[–]1s44c -1 ポイント0 ポイント  (6子コメント)

If it takes that much name dropping you must be talking to followers who want to avoid anything innovative. They are not going to go for it no matter what.

[–]Papazio 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Fair point but I think its less about innovation and more about legitimacy.

Imagine you heard about a revolutionary super efficient electric jet engine for jumbos. After trying to understand the technology at a basic level, you want to know if/when/by whom it will be used. If it has been out in the public domain (albeit not widely known about) but the big aerospace companies aren't at least looking at it, then it makes you question its legitimacy.

[–]addictedtohappygenes 5 ポイント6 ポイント  (1子コメント)

To many non-technical people, you are effectively talking about magic when you try to describe Ethereum. If you mention that this crazy magic is also being looked at by Goldman Sachs, they have much more reason to believe that you might be talking about something substantial. I think that could make the difference between them disregarding what you say or actually considering it.

[–]duluoz1 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

JP Morgan too. They've already got a working product (quorum).

[–]newscommentsreal 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Nah, the problem is that most people can't understand the tech, especially not right away in a single sitting. Or, at least, they can't understand the tech enough to form a well-founded critical opinion of it. You can help them along by having them perform peripheral processing.

[–]WikiTextBot 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Elaboration likelihood model: Peripheral route

The peripheral route is used when the message recipient has little or no interest in the subject and/or has a lesser ability to process the message. Being at the low end of the elaboration continuum, recipients do not examine the information as thoroughly. With the peripheral route, they are more likely to rely on general impressions (e. g.

[ PM | Exclude me | Exclude from subreddit | FAQ / Information | Source ] Downvote to remove | v0.24

[–]EvanVanNess 66 ポイント67 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Have you considered finding someone recognized in the industry to come in and talk to high level executives?

Either way, you've planted your flag in the ground. in a few years, they will come back to you and ask your opinion on how they should use "blockchain." I know at least a few people who have stories that start similar to yours, but end with them leading blockchain projects.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 35 ポイント36 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Thanks for the comment. At least the ice has been broken. If there's a killer Dapp that applies to my industry I'll be able to bring it up and at least I've laid the foundation. I work for intelligent, inquisitive people; I think they'll eventually come around.

[–]Cartosys 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Plus, odds are you've made somebody curious, and they'll go and do the research themselves.

[–]ZergShotgunAndYou 39 ポイント40 ポイント  (7子コメント)

Accurate rendition of OP giving his presentation: https://www.powersystemsdesign.com/library/resources/images/Dilbert/dilbert_dec11.gif

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 23 ポイント24 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Hilarious. It wasn't contentious. Just awkward because nothing was landing with the audience. It quickly became clear I was speaking a completely different language.

[–]KeijiN 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (1子コメント)

It quickly became clear I was speaking a completely different language.

It always surprises me how quickly and so early in the talk this happens.

[–]TJ11240 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Then an insufficient foundation was laid. You need to cast a wide net to catch these fish. Explain it like they are five.

[–]basementdiplomat 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Dilbert is the shit. I'm on Scott Adams' mailing list and I get a new comic every day.

[–]goocy 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Oh hi, 1995, here's 2017 speaking. Please don't complain about ethics in game journalism. I know it sucks, but if you do it's going to suck much more.

[–]basementdiplomat 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Uh, what? I'm confused now.

[–]djn808 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Or more likely: Conspiracy Charlie, doesn't even notice he was smoking a cigarette the entire time during the presentation.

[–]DarthRusty 24 ポイント25 ポイント  (19子コメント)

I'm in accounting/finance at my company and have been seeking out opportunities to present it or even bring it up in some way. Not even the IT guys have heard of it so it's been falling on deaf ears. The best I've done is get one person to buy ETH and found another who was already invested.

I don't think most people can understand just how disruptive this tech will be, especially for finance/accounting.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 7 ポイント8 ポイント  (4子コメント)

Agreed. That was my reasoning for giving the presentation with our entire accounting dept present. It was crickets. I was at least expecting some of the younger accountants to get engaged and ask some insightful questions and get a good conversation started.

[–]red_dawn88 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (3子コメント)

Sadly, there are plenty of young people who couldn't give two shits about new tech. Unless it's a new iPhone of course.

[–]NuclearCoffee77 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (2子コメント)

He should've explained to them that with Status they could send dickpics in an even more efficient manner.

[–]blthsfrznbns 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Just what we need: a permanent, verifiable record of your dick pic that you can never make disappear..

[–]cuchoi 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (3子コメント)

Hi, I don't understand how disruptive this tech will be, but I keep seeing it mentioned everywhere. Can you point me to any resources that describes why is this the case?

[–]DarthRusty 12 ポイント13 ポイント  (2子コメント)

You can go down the rabbit hole of these subs or a google search, but here's a decent write up on the potential disruptive nature of the blockchain:

https://hackernoon.com/why-everyone-missed-the-most-important-invention-in-the-last-500-years-c90b0151c169

And here's a great intro from a blockchain guru/father:

http://tim.blog/2017/06/04/nick-szabo/

[–]chastity_BLT 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (4子コメント)

Your IT guys haven't heard of digital currency?

[–]DarthRusty 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (1子コメント)

They've heard of it but not as far as implementing blockchain into a finance and accounting system.

[–]chastity_BLT 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Gotcha. Was about to say yall might want to get some new IT guys.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

We don't have in-house IT.

[–]djn808 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Half the guys churning out CRUDs in the Bay don't even know about it yet.

[–]outbackdude 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'm in a tiny media company in the outback of Australia. 3 of the 10 staff know about blockchains and roughly how they work...

[–]zdiddy 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (2子コメント)

What kind of use cases do you see for accounting and/or finance departments within a company? I've been trying to think of some my self

[–]DarthRusty 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Booking entries to a blockchain makes the transactions that much more verifiable. It's one reason the audit world is so interested in it. If you can verify that what goes into the blockchain is good, then pretty much anything on the block chain is easily provable and verifiable. No more Enrons cooking the books to make it look like they have assets that they've never had. It will make fraud very difficult, or at least much easier to detect, as any entries or transactions made will be visible by every node.

Go a little further back and using a blockchain as the basis for supply chain management has even more use cases.

[–]newscommentsreal 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Probably the kind of stuff Factom provides.

[–]KarlHabsburger 16 ポイント17 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Don't take it the wrong way. It's just like the Internet back then in the 90's and 00's. Before people don't understand or see many other people use it, they won't grasp the magnitude of potential change that resides in the blockchain-technology.

[–]WeaponizedMath 11 ポイント12 ポイント  (4子コメント)

Good.

Innovation doesn't come from executives. To them, standing still is making progress because the industries they control are a race to the bottom.

Its my goal to eat their lunch, take their wages and put them out of work. Thank you for this post. It is energizing.

[–]cogneato69 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (3子コメント)

Yes, the majority of executives are status quo maintainers. Still, if given the information and enough a-ha moments they'll come around.

[–]WeaponizedMath 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (2子コメント)

I think this is a bit wishy washy.

It's risk and their job is the avoid, mitigate or minimize risk. They'd be stepping out into the frontier and they would have no one to call if shit got real. In a world dominated by service level agreements that's unheard of.

That's a career ender for them. Not just at their current job but probably in their industry. I would be more afraid of the executives rushing to adopt something like Ethereum/Bitcoin than the ones who ignore it.

[–]cogneato69 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (1子コメント)

I'm not really disagreeing with you. Being disruptive is enathema to entrenched interests. Unless it's part of your business model, but that's extremely rare. Also, I don't really know what I'm talking about, haha.

[–]WeaponizedMath 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Gotcha. I've just spent too much time around them.

It's my bias, but generally I assume anyone with a 'C' in their title is trying to do as little as possible. If forced to act they implement something benign and immeasurable or measurable only in a positive light.

If really stuck having to implement a change I've noticed they tend to find a new job before the change has baked long enough to have any meaningful KPI

[–]travick 6 ポイント7 ポイント  (5子コメント)

You did a first attempt, nothing wrong with that. This stuff is so disruptive that most fail to grasp it, even when it is front of them or if they are in the middle of it (frogs in heating water...). You will need to repeat this a couple of times for sure. Did you mention any use cases ? Would you mind sharing your deck (if you have one) ?

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (4子コメント)

Thanks, appreciate the words. I'd share my deck, except it's pretty bare bones and most likely would result in more questions than answers here. My presentation style is to have limited text on each slide and load most of the content into my words. I prefer my audience to listen to me and not read my slides. Anyway, it results in fairly boring/uninformative decks when emailed out.

[–]travick 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (2子コメント)

Got you, makes sense. I found this intro to Ethereum/blockchain very informative although a bit technical for general use maybe, there are usable slides in this too: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/6ak7q4/new_video_of_my_intro_to_ethereum_presentation/

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (1子コメント)

This is great. Thanks for sharing. I could have used this and edited down for simplicity. I used a lot of info from David Yermack, NYU. I had hoped the "appeal to authority" strategy would be helpful.

[–]travick 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

👍🏻you're welcome, we are on the same side of the coin :-)

[–]melenkurio 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Alone from this comment, I can see that you know how to present well. So not your fault that the message wasnt received.

Imo some guys here are a bit overhyped. How disruptive blockchain will be, will depend on how scalable it will become. Its not a 100% safe bet. Still its not smart to ignore such a fast growing technology.

[–]jamesey10 5 ポイント6 ポイント  (0子コメント)

how will it directly disrupt your business? What savings or revenue adjustments will happen? that's all the executives care about.

[–]Ignatius_G_Reilly 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (1子コメント)

I've given up on trying to evangelise or whatever. Some people just seem to get it immediately, But with most it would take too long to onboard to a level where they don't think you're insane.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I disagree. My presentation may have been a flop, but at least I planted the seed. Maybe someone else will come along and water it. I work with highly intelligent, curious people. No one at my firm (including me) has a technical background so this was clearly too much of an edge-case. I find Ethereum so compelling I can't help but tell everyone about it.

[–]psswrd12345 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Thanks for sharing your experience. I've been the crazy guy in the office for the better part of 18 months, and colleagues are only now beginning to express an interest. Will be giving a similar intro presentation to a similar group of people. I'm planning on opening by asking people if they know what the internet is and then asking them to explain it before transitioning to a conversation on the "Internet 2.0" and the potential implications.

The struggle is real, but we will prevail!

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Good luck! Would love to hear how it goes.

[–]GregFoley 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (1子コメント)

What was the gist of your presentation? I don't know what the benefit of decentralized tech is other than avoiding government control. So I'm actually interested in hearing how this benefits a traditional company.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I approached it from two angles: (1) This is really interesting tech and a great thought exercise (technologically, philosophically, game theory and financial); (2) if this takes off it'll be disruptive and here's how I think it'll be disruptive.

I work in finance and on the second part I discussed how a block chain will affect fees related to third parties (international money transfer, equity exchanges), will impact commercial real estate investing (chain of ownership, title insurance, notaries), commercial debt and possibly industry-wide accounting practices. Basically, I took the stance that this is pretty interesting technology and it has the potential to increase transaction speed while reducing costs and also have ancillary impacts as well. If it achieves its potential our firm has much to gain.

[–]sourpatch1187 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (3子コメント)

Show this video = promotion https://youtu.be/1kp15UrRtQs

[–]youtubefactsbot 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

What is Blockchain? - Blockchain Explained [1:44]

Blockchain is the technology behind Bitcoin, but it's more than just a tool for buying drugs on the dark web. Here's why you should care.

Jeff Kirdeikis in People & Blogs

14,826 views since Jun 2017

bot info

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thanks!

[–]crypto_kang 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Thank you

[–]coinlock 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Imagine giving a presentation to the retail arm of a company in 1994 and telling them that there entire business was going be crushed by a global network connecting all people and companies that would allow for people to browse products and purchase things from their couch. It's just a leap too far for most people, they don't understand how the thing they owe their livelihood to can be so completely displaced.

[–]Vinyyy23 2 ポイント3 ポイント  (0子コメント)

You fought the good fight. Well done. Takes guts to present something this hard to explain to people who never heard of it.

Probably like Einstein trying to explain Relativity to everyone else who is not a genius

[–]inasacu 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (1子コメント)

It was a good idea, have you tried key players? Maybe, IT Strategy upper management first and see how that goes. If it goes well, ask them who next to present this. In any case, try upper management in other areas of the company.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I work for a small company (by head count) and everyone was in the room. It wasn't like I was laughed out of the room or anything, just a total disconnect. They're all smart inquisitive people. I'm sure they'll come around. It's just early.

[–]Tegno 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

IMO the absolute best presentation on what this technology could potentially accomplish. Hands down. Everyone I show this to walks away a convert.

https://youtu.be/h8DuaG11juo

Had you just poached this 25min talk for content, you would be in a better position.

[–]Dunning_Krugerrands 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

So what is your industry?

[–]PUNCHEDinthejunk 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (1子コメント)

"Dear accounting team, checkout this distributed ledger that will authenticate transactions with zero human involvement, cool right!?!"

Cynicism aside, this isn't the kind of thing where you should seek broad approval. In my experience, it always goes south. Identify a specific problem a key stakeholder is having, and present how Blockchain tech can solve the problem faster while reducing cost.

Your average employee is just collecting a check and keeping their heads low during the next round of layoffs.

[–]newscommentsreal 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yeah, don't think accountants would be so stoked about being put out of a job.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Thanks. It's been helpful to talk through it with everyone on this post. I honestly struggle with the fact that it's not more widely known. I can't comprehend why people aren't as blown away as we are about this tech. All in good time, I guess.

[–]KarlHabsburger 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

You might want to consider reading "Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma built" by Dunkan Clark. It deals with very similar issues regarding the struggles that entrepreneurs faced while building E-businesses. You shouldn't forget that the Internet was foreign territory back then just as the blockchain is today for the majority of people. The more people who build useful Dapps that create value for consumers, businesses and governments, the sooner blockchain will become the industry standard.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Yes! Or Ransomware.

[–]onemany 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (1子コメント)

Can you show us your presentation? Or can you provide a sanitized version. I'm curious to see what you presented and how.

[–]_KnownUnknowns_[S] 3 ポイント4 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'd prefer not to share it. However, I borrowed a lot from David Yermack. You can get a good sense of what I presented here: https://promarket.org/expect-within-next-10-years-probably-half-banks-will-gone/

[–]AC-AC 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Did the same thing at my company haha.

[–]MasterJ09 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Think this is a great presentation to explain blockchain on a corporate level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RplnSVTzvnU

[–]texture 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Eventually they'll just remember you as the person who was prescient.

[–]n1nj4_v5_p1r4t3 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (2子コメント)

IMHO you should of started with Bitcoin and bitcoin. Level 2 is ETH.

[–]could-of-bot 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

It's either should HAVE or should'VE, but never should OF.

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Should have, could have, would have.

I am a bot. Please don't hesitate to PM me any questions.

[–]YYCExplorer 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

OP is it possible to share this presentation? I have been asked to do somethign similar. We are looking at the possibility of using for managing transactions between buiness units.

[–]TotesMessenger 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

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[–]cyberneticdem0n 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Start a new company, with star wars blackjack and space hookers!

[–]thatsrealneato 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I did a similar presentation about the basics of blockchain technology and I think it went pretty well. Even if not everyone fully grasped everything, they got the gist of what a blockchain is and why it's interesting technology. Granted I work at a small tech startup so it might be a different audience.

Knowing that everyone I work with has at least heard of bitcoin, even if they don't know anything about it, I started by explaining that the blockchain is to bitcoin what the internet is to email. Everyone understands how immensely valuable email is and how it wouldn't be possible without the protocols of the internet. This helps to frame blockchains as a new type of protocol for sharing transactional information.

Then I went into the issues with the current centralized nature of modern digital transactions. Requiring a middleman like a bank or government is bad because it slows transactions down and makes them more expensive and less private. Blockchains are a solution for peer-to-peer digital transactions without the need for a middleman. Then I got into more of the details about it being decentralized and distributed, and how all that works (at a high level).

It's definitely tough to present this type of stuff to very non-technical people. If they don't have any clue about what a network is, I can understand why this would be like talking to a wall.

[–]cbrasoygard 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Keep up the good work! They will understand in eventually. Stop talking about global distributed ledger, instead find some good use/business cases and present those. Ethereum basically has good use cases for all industries.

[–]chejazi 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Next time just open your browser on a projector and scroll them through this page: http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/pages/blockchain/

:P

[–]rforrevolution 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I've been raving around the company about blockchain and Ethereum's dapps, and my CEO asked to meet with him next week to discuss the blockchain and cryptocurrencies. I'm pretty educated on the basics and have read some books; however, I'm still a lil nervous and I feel like I need to know EVERYTHING there is about it to confidently speak about the 'chain and its effect on our future. Any tips anyone?

[–]AdamMonkey 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

This story might be nice to save for in a years time. Then again, for noobs like me its pretty hard to explain and believe me I tried

[–]BroKing 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

If I totally don't get it (mostly), but I believe it's going to be huge based on conversations with people that totally DO get it, does that mean I'm ok?

[–]darkerside 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Would you be interested in uploading your presentation here? It might be fun for us to give it a listen, critique it (if you're up for it), and even learn something!

[–]ProFalseIdol 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Question is.. does your company need this change? If most of your bosses are making money off of their salary-slaves.. then chances are, they aren't inclined to take risk.

[–]Doctor-Flops 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (1子コメント)

I feel your pain. Stick to your guns! This is why I stopped telling my friends and family about it. They all think I'm trying to sell them a ponzi scheme, which couldn't be further from the truth. I've been classified as the idiot throwing his money down the toilet and the butt of many jokes. They all ridicule me and then follow-up with a statement like, "well I hope it works out." Jerks. But that's alright, I'll have the last laugh in a couple years when they ask me how I managed to retire in my 30's, buy a house and a lambo outright in cash (or ETH???). J/k about the lambo - not a good look for me.

[–]ThisGoldAintFree 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I think my family thought the same till they made about 8x investment in a few months (they mainly sold in upper 300's and bought in 40's). Now they are interested in it but we are out for the moment!

[–]Emrico1 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Perhaps watch some of Vitalik's presentations. They go over well with executive types. A friend of mine asked me out of the blue 'are you interesting in Etherium?' after seeing a presentation from Vitalik.

[–]BlazedAndConfused 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Blockbuster laughed at Netflix when they presented to them too. Stay vigilant.

[–]greggdourgarian 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

You can't get a man to understand something when his livelihood depends on him not understanding it.

[–]Burindunsmor 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

It's easier to explain currency as trust. Bitcoin is uncounterfitable trust units. Ethereum is gold. Uncounterfitable units of trust that actually useful as something other than currency.

[–]CryptoCapitalist 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'd imagine trying to explain the internet years ago went somewhat similar.

[–]liljepp 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

This TED talk is a great and simple to understand explanation of the blockchain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft8dSvdH2ek

[–]CEO_OF_REKT 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Well hello there...

[–]starkistuna 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

How did they react? I talked to it to a friend how owns a small company and has very low cost electricity costs. He talked to his brother who is very tech savy , he couldnt figure out how to get mining started. Etherem was 10 then.. BTC was 400$ He said BTC was just used for drug money . LOL

[–]NuclearCoffee77 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

They probably thought you were into some kind of pyramid scheme.

[–]NamBot3000 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Would it be possible to see your presentation? Redacted if necessary.

[–]BitcoinIsTehFuture 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Don't sweat it. You are ahead of the curve. These are the same people who didn't see the Internet or email being big. If you had told them about these innovations during their first few years, you would have been met with the same blank faces. You are ahead of your time my boy.

[–]RTylerSmith 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I just want to thank you for having courage...the courage to present something really important and be misunderstood, the courage to be honest about your disappointment, and the courage to come to an online forum and receive feedback from supporters and critics alike. You are a leader in every sense of the word.

I had many experiences like yours before my breakthrough at BHP Billiton. For reference, I led the very first project to build of a production grade supply chain using a Blockchain. To be honest, I feel like I am still living in a dream with this opportunity to be the Director of Energy and work full-time building Blockchain solutions for ConsenSys. But I would never have gotten this chance if I had given up after my initial failures.

My advice is to take what you know about your job and your industry and keep thinking about how the Blockchain can make a significant impact in your company. Try to come up with something small and similar to other Blockchain projects that people are building in the ecosystem. Try to build a business case around your idea and quantify the savings your company would generate. And then after you've polished this business case until it shines, try to pitch it again. Just be prepared to explain why it requires a Blockchain to work.

With courage like yours I know you will discover opportunities to promote this technology. You are one of the leaders making it a reality for the rest of the world.

[–]ComradeCrypto 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (1子コメント)

This is completely what I fear bringing eth-ideas into my company. It's a huge break from conventional thought, and it's an incredibly hard thing to concisely explain in a short amount of time.

[–]ComradeCrypto 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

However, don't you dare feel embarrassed or ashamed. Trailblazers always have a rough time building support for 'outlandish' ideas. If you really truly believe in this, keep talking about it, keep pressing, and eventually you will convince them all.

[–]215_Prof 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Do you have a copy of what you presented? If you don't, that might be a first consideration for your next presentation.

[–]slacknation 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

did you mention price went up 20x?

[–]free_snake1 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

It wasn't like I am forced to go into it.

[–]Ew_E50M 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Gotta think from an outside perspective. What is Ethereum to anyone not into it?

Decentralized currency

Unstable currency

"play money"

Ethereum isnt anything else yet, the mining behind it only does transactions. For payment methods bitcoin is way ahead. DAPPs is nothing but a pipe-dream at this stage. ICOs are just cashgrabs, tokens are nothing. So exactly what is there to present to people not into it? Blockchain wont be anything other than "play money" for years to come, bitcoin still is.

[–]palehorsey 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

so what was their criticisms? what kind of company? give them links to crypt0 vids on youtube. that should learn him real good.

[–]DerpageOnline 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

When in doubt, reference general authorities. Like other large businesses and banks. They're all over blockchain for easing up transaction processes, and a lot of their visionary-stuff is public.

[–]Dsrtfsh 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

99% of people and bosses don't understand how the Fiat currencies work let alone ETH. So I think this was expected.

[–]AzzX 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I can imagine doing a stocktake on the Ethereum block chain, click generate report - done.

As opposed to the old school method of physically counting sheep.

[–]bobtheseal 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I will be honest, I don't have a clue what the hell ether or ethereum is.. its some sort of currency is all I understand and yes I have looked at video's, read papers etc ... My son said think of it as a commodity like gold or oil, but its isn't... I just realized their a lot smarter people than me out there .. but also a fool is easily parted with his money .. still not sure which category this belongs in..

[–]billykinggg 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

im 100% eth since this year and i cant really still wrap around my head what it is exactly

[–]include007 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

super!! congrats!! making someone listen to us about this is such an effort!! and you made it. how did you do that? is your talk public? I would like to do the same but i am too newbie...