The following story was published in Inquirer RED’s August-September 2022 issue and has been edited for length and clarity.
Victor Consunji is the CEO of Victor Consunji Development Corporation (VCDC).
The thing about NFTs, blockchain, and crypto, every couple of years since the early 2000s, [the technology has] been gaining and losing momentum. A lot of people get hyped at it because it’s speculative, like bitcoin. People buy bitcoin because they think the value will shoot through the roof. And other coins as well.
I believe that for anything to have value, it has to have real-world use.
That’s actually what turned me off about crypto. I believe that for anything to have value, it has to have real-world use. So you cannot tell me that a bitcoin is worth $20,000 a coin when you can’t buy a single thing with it. You can buy bitcoin, but you can’t use it to buy anything else. At least not efficiently. And also, you can’t tell me the value when the value can’t hold steady.
After having said this, with all the hype around it, [the technology has been] kind of easing into the mainstream just a little bit. The technology behind it, on the other hand, is incredibly useful. The blockchain behind it and the ability of this blockchain in responsible hands as an instrument to have a paradigm shift towards how we do business, and how we interact. This is what I’m primarily interested in.
And that’s why we started exploring all of the NFTs and blockchain and crypto. I think that the technology, just like how the internet changed things and continues to do so, the blockchain will do the same thing.
While the internet is something we use to communicate and find information, the blockchain will change the way we transact, and how we secure transactions and contracts. It’s essentially the digitization of what we do on the legal front.
We have this archaic system of legal documents. In the Philippines, everyone has to sign every single page. If you really think about it, what’s holding you to this piece of paper? It’s a bit of ink out of your fancy ballpen on a piece of paper. How does ink or paper signify a commitment? And the bottom line is, you’re not actually making the piece of paper responsible for anything. That’s just the action that you did, it’s symbolic. Ultimately the commitment of whatever’s written down exists in the psyche of all parties involved. And that piece of paper is just a reminder is what it is you’re committed to.
So you’ve got this system that we’ve had for eons — Ever since we’ve had charcoal on a piece of stone, eventually moving into papyrus, eventually moving into actual paper.
Why can’t it be done digitally? This is the next step.
And the dilemma that everybody had with the digital trail is that because it’s less tangible, and so much easier to manipulate. The confidence wasn’t there. But blockchain technology has the ability to verify. As the technology is more understood, it now becomes a possible tool for you to secure contracts, commitments, and everything else.
Let’s stay away from the hype and look at the technology. The technology is incredibly useful. The hype will come to go.