By Rana DiOrio, Co-Founder & CEO of Creative Mint, Inc.
Learn more about Rana’s company at http://linkedin.com/company/creativemintio
“You should be taking this technology as seriously as you should have been taking the development of the Internet in the early 1990s.”
~ Blythe Masters, former executive at JP Morgan Chase and CEO of Digital Asset Holdings LLC
Most people are completely unaware of the massive tectonic shift that is transpiring in technology today. Its impact is as profound, and arguably more important, than the birth of the World Wide Web. My well-educated parents didn’t know anything about it before I told them. My professional friends in finance, law, healthcare, and real estate learned about it for the first time when I sent them links to articles. Even my friends who are technology entrepreneurs are only superficially aware of the new paradigm in technology that is in its infancy and will one day impact us all — the blockchain.
To learn more about what the blockchain is, take a look at this article written by the MIT Technology Review Editors or this one written by Bernard Marr for Forbes. If your interest is piqued, and you want to learn more about the relationship between blockchain and cryptocurrency and the possible use cases for the technology, read this compilation published by Blockgeeks. Essentially, “Blockchain is to Bitcoin, what the internet is to email. A big electronic system, on top of which you can build applications. Currency is just one,” explained Sally Davies, FT Technology reporter.
As entrepreneurs, speculators, investors, enthusiasts, futurists, and regulators all rush to engage with the blockchain in myriad ways, I believe that there is a single unifying force that will help us all to unlock its full potential — kindness. What does kindness have to do with the blockchain? Let me explain.
To me, the essence of kindness is The Golden Rule, that is, to treat others the way you would like to be treated. I’ve written an award-winning children’s picture book on this subject, and we all could use a refresher, especially now. The Golden Rule is the foundation for most of the world’s major religions and systems of law. Why have people all over the world, over thousands of years, kept saying the same thing? Because The Golden Rule allowed people to live in groups. Groups have advantages. Like tribes, families, teams, and countries. Countries have rules (or laws). The very idea of law is based on “The Golden Rule”. When people make laws they are saying that we give up our power to do something so that we can cooperate to live peacefully in a group, a community. So essentially, The Golden Rule is the keystone of civilization. It only stands to reason that it should also be the guiding principle to the blockchain, which came into existence to promote social justice and economic equality.
How are we doing our part? Creative Mint is fueling purpose-driven brands with Creative Currency™ to foster kindness in children and caring adults. We are building a platform to accelerate the growth of socially-conscious brand ecosystems, using our proprietary online marketplace to democratize and decentralize creative intellectual property rights transactions with transparency. By leveraging the power of the blockchain, and issuing tokens for royalty and revenue futures, our technology offers the ability to buy, sell, and trade Creative Currency™ through Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) and contribute directly to the success of each Creative and brand development partner.
We believe that the future of civilization rests in society’s collective ability to instill kindness in our children, so Creative Mint will focus initially on the children’s media market. Over time, the platform and marketplace will be easily applied to other creative industries and will be localized to include Creatives who speak other languages all over the world.
Creative Mint serves the foundational purpose of the blockchain by (1) disintermediating middlemen who take profits away from artists, (2) creating transparency in historically cloaked industries, (3) protecting underdogs, (4) helping ameliorate the distribution of wealth (disappearing middle class) by fairly remunerating participants in creative supply chains, and (5) ensuring equal pay for equal work with transparency.
So my question, perhaps challenge, for those of you who are engaging with the blockchain is — how are you being kind?