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Ethical supply chain is an idea whose time has come, and blockchain technology is the enabling technology that makes it practical. Furthermore, it isn't at the low end of the trust spectrum the way that Bitcoin is. That is an important distinction in regards to these applications. There is a baseline of trust that can be offered to by the system that is likesimilar to what we extend to anyone in our town or city. This is simply based on the knowledge that you may meet that person againagain, or know someone else who knows of them. It is a context of relationship building where trust continuously builds on a growing history of outcomes. The blockchain can track it all securely;securely. asNot not only awould this tracked within the context for trust building in the human sense, but the trace data can be mined for objective performance measures that are directly linked to collective decision making processes that make the whole supply chain work better.
The collective intelligence of markets is based exactly on this sort of structure, except that in many markets the players compete for the best information tohordhorde for market advantage. A supply chain commoncommons would have information producers competing to produce the best information for efficient market operation. By using Commons Based Peer Production (CBPP) to produce the systems and information necessary for efficient market, an entire complex of micro-markets can operate and become completely integrated with chain operations.
In fact, when firms use concetrated financial power to predict and respond to markets better than all but other players with similar investments in asymetric market information is arguably at the core of what is wrong with the system. Micro producers in the chain don't have the individual resources to develop AI based automation themselves, but a commons funded almost invisibly with crypto currency integrated into the chains can allocate sufficient pooled resources. The Information producers would compete their own production commons to publish the best information and systems for chain producers.
Producers of information and systems would have their own commons of production, and currencies to measure productivity and allocate resources in their marketplaces of ideas and information. Producers in the chains that make products can use any of it to enhance their operations. This creates the context for trust building in the supply chain itself and will accellerate flows, transaction rates and economic viability from a chain's many sources to delivery of value. There will be virtuous cycles both up and down the chains and when the experience of producers to feed back to the information and automation systems that make markets efficient. Only experiment and experience can show what we can intiut, that there are will be more opportunities for virtuous feedback that we can imaging. As the dept of relationships and trust builds based on the first limited successes, the growing networks of trust can explode and make possible systems effects that we can only imagine.
There are a number of players looking at this space, but I think it is critical that all of us pool our efforts to produce a body of code, practices and operational facilities that can address the complexity and fluidity in this space. There are plenty of complex problems for all to engage and work for an entire ecosystem of companies and institutions each focused on areas of expertise and capacity. The focus on ethics starts with economic ethics; therefore, this commons has to be designed to be systematically resistant to rent seeking and monopoly. The tools we deploy for producers can enable producers to route around rent seeking middlemen and make fair trade values visible in the supply chain.
By creative use of more specifically designed crypto-currencies, these values can even be expressed in markets where the producers on supply chains can coordinate their production with their partners up and down the chain. The Internet of Things (IoT) allows one to actually track the details as parts are supplied to the producers of composite products. That's only one of the more obvious parts of the process, since the big possibility is what can be described as a magic supply chain.
Once one has a whole network of producers who are connected in dynamic, "smart" markets, something completely new becomes possible. Imagine now that there is also a commons for open product designs, or one that is priviledged as a steward for products developed with public and donated funds. A smart supply chain is one that can self-organize to produce products from commons based designs, patents and production research.
The relationships between the design commons and the producers can start at the prototype phase. Probably a different set of low-volume producers would produce components and sub-assemblies based on designs emerging in the commons. When the designs reach release quality, production can scale up fueled by growing orders. Producers can respond to market signals throughout the process and implement advanced supply chain governance tools using the high quality and timely data building in the blockchain.
The more automation and AI we share in common to augment human markets, the more magic this network will be able to produce. Today many economists think that markets are the answer to everything, but along the way they abandoned the classical economic concerns for rent-seeking and monopoly. If technology in a commons of production can reduce market parasitics to an acceptable level, markets can become efficient enough to address the monopoly power of large firms, and markets can function as the classical economists claimed they should.
The Magic Supply Chainisis, in a sensesense, just a projection of classic economic theory with one difference. The markets themselves are considered and governed collectively, as a commons of production. Market function isn't to create the stability needed, if necessary, markets need to be regulated notso tothat they will not fail. This regulation is a function of commons governance, not the magic of the market. Market magic is what we introduced above; technology such that when orders are placed for a new design, whether commons based or private IP, the producers as a network can see that and immediately begin to coordinate production. The orders and sub-assemblies may already be on the chains before the design is even finalized, and deliveries can happen soon after the design prints are ready to make.
The collective intelligence of markets is based exactly on this sort of structure, except that in many markets the players compete for the best information to
In fact, when firms use concetrated financial power to predict and respond to markets better than all but other players with similar investments in asymetric market information is arguably at the core of what is wrong with the system. Micro producers in the chain don't have the individual resources to develop AI based automation themselves, but a commons funded almost invisibly with crypto currency integrated into the chains can allocate sufficient pooled resources. The Information producers would compete their own production commons to publish the best information and systems for chain producers.
Producers of information and systems would have their own commons of production, and currencies to measure productivity and allocate resources in their marketplaces of ideas and information. Producers in the chains that make products can use any of it to enhance their operations. This creates the context for trust building in the supply chain itself and will accellerate flows, transaction rates and economic viability from a chain's many sources to delivery of value. There will be virtuous cycles both up and down the chains and when the experience of producers to feed back to the information and automation systems that make markets efficient. Only experiment and experience can show what we can intiut, that there are will be more opportunities for virtuous feedback that we can imaging. As the dept of relationships and trust builds based on the first limited successes, the growing networks of trust can explode and make possible systems effects that we can only imagine.
There are a number of players looking at this space, but I think it is critical that all of us pool our efforts to produce a body of code, practices and operational facilities that can address the complexity and fluidity in this space. There are plenty of complex problems for all to engage and work for an entire ecosystem of companies and institutions each focused on areas of expertise and capacity. The focus on ethics starts with economic ethics; therefore, this commons has to be designed to be systematically resistant to rent seeking and monopoly. The tools we deploy for producers can enable producers to route around rent seeking middlemen and make fair trade values visible in the supply chain.
By creative use of more specifically designed crypto-currencies, these values can even be expressed in markets where the producers on supply chains can coordinate their production with their partners up and down the chain. The Internet of Things (IoT) allows one to actually track the details as parts are supplied to the producers of composite products. That's only one of the more obvious parts of the process, since the big possibility is what can be described as a magic supply chain.
Once one has a whole network of producers who are connected in dynamic, "smart" markets, something completely new becomes possible. Imagine now that there is also a commons for open product designs, or one that is priviledged as a steward for products developed with public and donated funds. A smart supply chain is one that can self-organize to produce products from commons based designs, patents and production research.
The relationships between the design commons and the producers can start at the prototype phase. Probably a different set of low-volume producers would produce components and sub-assemblies based on designs emerging in the commons. When the designs reach release quality, production can scale up fueled by growing orders. Producers can respond to market signals throughout the process and implement advanced supply chain governance tools using the high quality and timely data building in the blockchain.
The more automation and AI we share in common to augment human markets, the more magic this network will be able to produce. Today many economists think that markets are the answer to everything, but along the way they abandoned the classical economic concerns for rent-seeking and monopoly. If technology in a commons of production can reduce market parasitics to an acceptable level, markets can become efficient enough to address the monopoly power of large firms, and markets can function as the classical economists claimed they should.
The Magic Supply Chain