Zag To The Zig #21 :: Dial/smart phones, the future of food & finance trouble
⌨️⌨️Last week I included a few things about work and it was interesting to see that the article about Doing Your Own Thing was particularly popular. I didn’t realise so many of you are freelance or interested. If you have suggestions of themes I should follow or cover, do let me know.
This is this week’s curiosity catch.
In the Tech Basement
Hi-tech story first. Uber is testing one of those American free 1-800 numbers, for people who don’t have access to a smart phone. That’s apparently about 15 to 20% of Americans. Gimmick or a test for less smartphone savvy markets?
Software is Eating the World. Amazon Flex drivers (who deliver packages using their own vehicles) are now buying apps and bot-scripts to beat their co-freelancer-workers for a delivery shift.
The World is Eating, well not Software, but at least something software-influenced. Great overview on the future of lab-processed food and the potential impact on climate change. Do read.
In the Economy Room
I follow the Ethereum-based Decentralised Finance space quite closely and even experiment with it to get a feel for its up and downsides. But when protocols/platforms like Aave and dYdX launched Flash Loans, I deliberately didn’t mention it here. Flash loans are scripts that allow you to borrow an amount of money, use it for automated transactions and pay it back within the same ’transaction’, i.e. within the same Ethereum block, which takes about 10-15 seconds to be mined and sealed. When I first heard about it, it felt wrong and a lot like a high-risk product that - in my perception - would fit in the banking days of 2008.
And sure enough: last weekend, someone created a scenario to trigger a few smart contracts and made 350,000$ worth of Ether in about 10 seconds. In short, he/she loaned a huge pile of money, manipulated some automated markets, took the profits and paid back the loan a few seconds later.
On one hand, as DeFi fans claim, this is part of the learning curve and a result of low liquidity in some DeFi apps. And yes, there is something to be said for that: early days, high risk, be careful. On the other hand, it turns out that the testing culture of one of the protocols’ team wasn’t superb. And that’s crucial, because when you combine permissionless infrastructure with oh-there’s-money-to-be-made, you (also) get permissionless opportunities with unintended consequences.
Different tech, similar story in Kenya. With digital cash (M-Pesa has been successful mobile money since 2007) comes digital loans and huge personal debts. Not surprising if you know that some of these digital loan apps apparently charge 180% annual interest.
Quote: People who once borrowed mainly from family and friends are now being bombarded with ads for quick money and calls from debt collectors.
In the Purpose Room
I didn’t realise this when I mentioned Jo Caudron’s book in my article about Alignment, but now I know what Jo meant with his answer ‘we’ll be announcing something soon’. Strong signal from the agency formerly known as Duval Union Consulting, as they are changing their name to Scopernia and pivoting away from Digital Transformation towards Sustainable Business (in Dutch).
Which somehow got me to this old article on a book about what makes movements successful. Things like: Create a clear Purpose - Engagement, not Rhetoric.
Easy, but also easy to forget. I bookmarked this.
Random ZTTZ
This engineer decided to wrap a good old rotary dial around her smartphone. Not just because of retro-blues. She actually has some design-reasons for it.
🏁 End note: 1 thing I’ll be doing this week
I’ll be updating my website. It’s about time I rephrase a few of Services.