Kellen Odom

Kellen, this is a really interesting take on how Bitcoin and Blockchain may be influencing the value of companies that produce the components used in mining bitcoin. Bitcoin mining has kicked off a race to see who can construct the largest and fastest computer farms to process the most transactions for the blockchain ledger, and ultimately this need for computing power has definitely increased stock values for computer component companies.

After doing a little research I found out that these bitcoin mining operations consume an astounding amount of power (some articles cited that bitcoin farmers annually consume more power than the entire country of Singapore).

With the popularity of cryptocurrencies growing, the amount of power consumption by these mining data centers will continue to grow as well. Perhaps we will see a need to quickly expand power grids, and in turn see significant growth in stock value of companies who produce power generation components?

It would have been cool to get in on those initial years of mining. I found this graphic explanation of blockchain that I really like. It gave me some more insight into the process and filled in a few blanks for me: http://graphics.reuters.com/TECHNOLOGY-BLOCKCHAIN/010070P11GN/index.html

Kellen, great analysis on this wicked issue. In an article on Bill Gates’ blog, he mentions the situation in India and the impact toilets would have on their society. In the wicked problems article, we learn that wicked problems are inter-connected. With that in mind, Your proposed value proposition could be expanded even further to include the societal impact this would have on areas such as India. In this case, the education system. According to the blog post, a quarter of girls drop out of school because of the toilet situation (Gates). With this in mind, it would be interesting to see what other industries or segments of society are impacted by the installation of this life changing product.

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Indias-War-on-Human-Waste

So true! It doesn’t even have to be a mobile app. Maybe you could text a code on an “older” cell phone that will handle the same function?

Great headline Kellen! It caught my attention and I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments. Scalability seems to be the biggest roadblock but I also think that this digital innovation can contribute to other problems. I am not saying this initiative would be cheap, but I can see how this wicked problem can impact other struggling areas that might be suffering with the boom in technology. Using the application for logistics and operations is awesome. It then enables hiring people to service the toilets in which could stimulate the local economy. Specified skilled/labour/trade jobs are on the decline. Having a service technician or specialist could create an opportunity for a unique career path that was not available previously. As Rachel mentioned, there’s an awesome solution to several wicked problems by this 1 initiative. Hopefully Bill Gates can make this work.