How you as a product manager can solve real problems leveraging Web3
Nothing gets a lot of people on the edge of excitement or scepticism like talking about Web3 and Crypto. Its either someone they read about made a bunch or money or lost their entire retirement fund.
For Product Managers wanting to build in Web3, you will need to build social awareness and brand social capital as you build your product. No need building something glorious that people are afraid to use.
The first obvious step is upping your own knowledge of what Blockchain and its associated technologies are.
Let's start by explaining some key terms you've probably heard thrown about:
Blockchain: Think of Blockchain as a record-book that stores every single transaction made on it and is not owned by anyone or any organization (it's decentralised). Imagine if a specific MS Excel and Google sheet could be viewable by everyone, and every time you made a transaction, it would be automatically added to a column or a row, and no one could delete any column or row. Now imagine if your coins or this tech wasn't owned by Google or Microsoft. This is the foundational tech that enables cryptocurrency (like Bitcoin and Ethereum) and other things which we'll discuss later. You can confirm any transaction without needing to file any Freedom of Information Application or going to an institution to give you permission to look. Here's a visual from PWC on how it works:
Cryptocurrency (crypto): Think of this as digital money [like a digital dollar] that instead of being minted by your government's bank and stored at your local bank, is created electronically, stored electronically and shared electronically. This entire process is encrypted and stored in Blockchain to verify transfer and control the creation of monetary units. Most popular examples include Bitcoin, Ethereum and DodgeCoin.
Stablecoins: These are a type of crypto that is backed by a more stable, traditional asset like gold or the US dollar. This helps mitigate the volatility that is most prevalent with a lot of crypto coins when people make transactions based on speculation or tweet of the day.
Key advantages to blockchain technology:
Permanent ledger: Records cannot be changed. If a transaction was done, it will be recorded. The 'blocks' can only be added but not removed.
Increased transparency: Everyone curious to see the transaction details and have an account is able to view it. This feature is incredibly important for public service use-cases such as voting records and utilisation of public funds.
Financial incentives: This essentially means unrestricted transfer of funds, affordably. Additionally, one can tell you what to do with your money, who you can and cannot send it to, or shut your account for not adhering to rules. There are some regulatory downsides to this, but for a lot of people, they want real, un-interrupted control of their recourses.
Now, let's talk about the use-cases that could be heavily beneficial to emerging economies:
#1 - Land records system
I come from a country where rights to your property (land) could be taken away from you while you're asleep and you're then left holding a piece of paper that is identical to someone else's piece of paper. Land ownership is a social, political and economic issue... it is also incredibly emotional. You will find a large number of people who look dirt-poor yet have large tracts of property and are unwilling to sell. A large majority of those, at the core of their hesitation, is the thought that they could give out their Title Deeds, and not get paid. Implementation of Blockchain would be a legendary addition to most country's land registry systems. Every time property changes ownership could be recorded, even when it's through inheritance; or the property is being split into smaller plots of land to be subdivided to different folks. Or even when a group of people own the same land i.e in families, or co-ownership SACCOs.
And just like that, any attempt to illegally transfer property will be futile. Future cases of property fraud, including illegal acquisition of public property by politicians would be severely diminished and the court system freed up to deal with more pertinent matters.
#2 - Voting
Again, coming from a country where the last 4 general election results were besmirched with accusations of election fraud, and where it takes a whole week to declare a winner, what would it look like if we could get same-day results that are above reproach?
A system that is connected to every single voter's identification; where those who can access appropriate digital devices can vote through their phones and those who cannot access them can vote in voting stations. imagine how short those lines would be, and how fast the country could move forward after every election period because the proclaimed winner is perceived and in essence the true winner? The electoral body's role would be to coordinate the process, not validate the results. No trust is required.
Trust is not a currency that is efficient enough in a world that is heavily capitalistic.
#3 - Healthcare
Imagine a world where patient records need not be stored in old physical files or sent via hackable emails? Where a patient could go to any doctor (perhaps in the world) and their health history and records be immediately accessible? Imagine where every change in diagnosis, or every new medication regimen is recorded and non-fungible so that a doctor can have a 360 degree view of a patient's medical history?
How many unnecessary deaths could be eliminated? With the encryptions and 'personal data' possible with Blockchain, humanity really will be better off.
#4 - Public Financial Records
Kenya's former president once said that Ksh. 2 billion is stolen daily from the public coffers by public officials with access to it. That's a whooping 16.5 Million USD!! Every 24 hours. How many schools, roads and hospitals could be built with that kind of money?
What would happen if every transaction made in the public coffers could be made publicly available and traceable? We'd know who took it, how much they took and what they did with it. how much could a country suffering from such impunity save?
Kenya is not the only country suffering from a case of officials with sticky fingers, a lot of developed countries have had to fight this too, perhaps at a smaller scale. Public companies have had to grapple with the effects of mismanaged funds. How would an open, trackable system change this?
Where to learn more about blockchain and cryptocurrency:
A Strategist's Guide to Blockchain will take you through some real-life examples of blockchain application, a deep-dive into how it works and the mental model you should consider using when wanting to leverage it as a technology.
Ten questions every board should ask when thinking about cryptocurrencies will give you insight into how to think about its relevance to your use-case and some of the limitations it presently has.
University of Nicosia has an excellent free online course on Digital currencies. The next intake is in February 2023. It's built out for newbies so check it out.
And here are some skills you could leverage to become an incredible blockchain product manager:
It's not all rosy in blockchain land:
While the potential upsides are massive, we have to acknowledge that there's a lot of existing gaps in the knowledge and expertise that exists regarding blockchain tech and its associated cryptocurrencies. For instance, the technology is still complex and consistently changing, there are a lot of platforms that work well-enough that wouldn't consider the hassle of becoming better, they can be challenging to implement with still limited expertise available, and finally, the regulators just do not fully understand it and tend to err on the side of caution in supporting its uptake.
Perhaps, however, the biggest challenge of all is the limited understanding of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies within the wider population. A lot of people have lost their money to scam artists and get-rich-quick schemes. This has essentially turned crypto and bitcoin into a four-letter-word no one wants to discuss in public.
As a Product Manager, as you build, remember that this collective social mental hurdle is what you'll need to tackle first.
I write for product newbies wanting to become product pros, based on everything I knew when I was starting out. If that is you, you'll probably like this.