By PRYSM Group
As we enter this new decade, we can’t turn away from the idea that some of the great challenges facing our society today may only be solved by enabling better public/private cooperation. From climate change to disease outbreak, governments and private companies should be able to work closely to share data and enable solutions for these complex issues. A key component of climate change policy is going to be changing the energy mix: enabling consumers, both people and businesses, to access a market for renewable energy as consumer and potentially prosumer. To counter the spread of disease outbreak and other potential epidemics, having access to better data analytics for monitoring population health and outbreaks may lead to quicker resolutions. Additionally, tackling industry issues relating to counterfeits and provenance is a major challenge for many industries from consumer goods to luxury products and would also benefit greatly from enhanced cooperation between the public and private sectors around the sharing of data.
Various technologies to share data have been available for more than a decade, but the important question is not what a technology can do, but what people choose to use it for. Often due to limited trust between counterparties in the aforementioned examples and more, many issues exist due to limited or complete lack of data being shared.
As Dr. Cathy Barrera, Founding Economist at Prysm Group, shares, blockchain technology can solve this issue by enabling this much needed data sharing by creating an environment that enables parties to be much more willing to contribute and solve what economists have defined as the ‘hold-up problem’.