PLANES, SUPPLY CHAINS, + BLOCKCHAINS W/ COLONEL JAMES ALLEN REGENOR
By: Shannon Grinnell
Tags: Blockchain, Blockchain Technology, Cryptocurrency, Supply Chain, Bitcoin

James Allen Regenor, Fr8 Network on the Speaking of Crypto podcast

“I’d like to see a world where blockchain is just ubiquitous, where every single thing that’s manufactured if you want to know where the touches were so that you know child slave labour wasn’t used or blood diamonds weren’t used or some of the ways that people are ever to exploit leverage for profit, I’d like to see those go away.”

James Allen Regenor, Col USAF (ret)

Retired United States Air Force Colonel and Chief Innovation Officer at Fr8 Network, Jim Regenor, believes that blockchain is a game changer. The single source of truth, the transparency and the trustlessness can create new business models and he’s working on a few of his own.

We talk about how people and different industries will be impacted when there’s no longer a need for an intermediary to govern or to act as the authority over various systems, like with digital currencies themselves that exist outside of traditional monetary or fiscal policies.

As a former White House staff member, Jim talks about a day in the life of the White House and said that it was like being able to know tomorrow’s news today.

We also dive into the transformative effects of blockchain tech and talk about a few use cases, like with supply chains, micro loans and digital identity.

Jim talks about his background at Moog, an industrial company that was using the technology of 3D printing, and Jim wanted to know where that technology could take them. When he learned about blockchain tech, he realized that there was the ability of creating new business models and new markets.

He shares an example of ‘the gig economy’ where people who work as freelancers or on short term contracts, aren’t able to access benefits the way those who are in traditional full time employment can. So Jim explained that blockchain can allow for a vehicle where freelancers could obtain benefits through a tokenized system build on blockchain technology.

Jim poses the question as to how can blockchain impact the individual and the firm and references this book.

Book: The Firm, The Market, The Law

by RH Coase

He explains that Henry Ford started the assembly line in a factory to make sure everything came together the way it was supposed to, and he was able to oversee production in order to ensure that everything was made in the right way. But, with blockchain being trustless, there’s no need for pieces to come together to be overseen by an authority who deems the production correct. He asks the question as to what kind of efficiencies or new systems can that create?

Book: Sapians: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari

Jim suggests that with peer to peer trust there will be a monumental change in how systems work, how business interact with one another and that it will inherently erode some of the traditional power of government.

One of the things he’s interested in seeing come to be is digital identity through blockchain technology. Sovereign digital identity in the developed world will allow peer to peer interactions, and can this model be taking into the developing world as well?

Jim uses a term he calls ‘Industry 4.0’ involving:

Digitization — the advances of the internet, scanning and upload, create a Word document

Digitalization — can move messages back and forth

Digital design — to a machine, like 3D printing

Digital transformation — blockchain truth being the transformative element

Where does he see blockchain tech being used? It will be best in highly regulated industries, an industry that has a lot of arbitrage (or middle men not creating added value), anything to do with liability and litigation, because transparency can create efficiency so the processes in these areas can become more streamlined.

He talks about Fr8 Network developing a protocol that will assemble standards for data as things move through logistics. He gives an example of a shipping container being tracked through blockchain tech and because of the single source of truth, if an item is damaged, the technology is there to be able to pinpoint where it happened. He calls it reverse forensics and explained that the visibility creates efficiencies.

Book: Blockchain Revolution

By Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott

Book: The Truth Machine

By Michael Casey

He talks about blockchain doing away with a list of terms and conditions to be agreed with, but what will replace it will be a governance model where the responsibility to protect the intellectual property or trade secrets will be that of the platform provider. As we get into the tech side of the blockchain, Jim mentions Aion’s solution to be able to move from chain to chain and he praises Aion’s founders, Matthew Spoke and Kesem Frank.

“Matt Spoke and his partner Kesem Frank at Nuco(Aion) they’re tearing it up. I’m telling you, that is going to be the next Amazon. They’re the next Mark Zuckerbergs. Those guys are wizards.”

Book: The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

By Kevin Kelly