Kuolun Chang

I think technology development and government control are both important, and it is significant to appropriately balance them. Technology development drives the development of the society, such as the touchscreen, internet, and so on. Technology helps in making people’s life easier. However, the control from the government is also necessary to protect personal information and cybersecurity in some way. The government regulations should go first, but I think the purpose of both the technology development and regulations is to make people’s life easier but also protect their rights.

I find this article very interesting because of how all f the different countries plan to approach regulating blockchain. I find it interesting that the United States plans on letting each state government determine the regulation rules on blockchain. On the other hand, countries in Europe plan on having a more standardized regulation and in China, they aren’t even going to allow blockchain to be a thing. This article just goes to show how every country treats automation and business differently.

It is truly a problem when new technology conflict with certain government regulations. Technology helps advance daily life, and government helps make things in control. I would say it depends on different government structure. For example, China, as a country with such great size of population, no wonder blockchain technology somehow got banned, it makes the citizens harder to get controlled by government, from security perspective. I believe from users’ perspective, they want to see how this technology can get through.

I think the EU has the right mindset of the places listed above when it comes to government regulation of blockchain technology. I think the United States deciding to leave blockchain technology regulation up to the states is absolutely absurd. So, perhaps, I wouldn’t be able to use certain sites that run on blockchain if I were to move to a different state? Blockchain needs to be open around the country, just as the Internet is today. China’s regulations when it comes to the Internet always seem absurd to me. The Chinese government does not like technology the lessens their influence, so there resistence to blockchain is unsurprising. The EU’s position of regulating blockchain like the Internet is today, although I may not agree with all of the regulations th EU puts on the Internet, makes the most sense. A free and open Internet is essential in today’s world.

This is really interesting and I never thought about all these new businesses that way. I definitely agree that we’ve been moving toward everything-on-demand, but never made the connection between technology and surplus. It makes me think of other popular companies at this time and in what way they are using and taking advantage of surplus. I wonder what the connection is between this everything-on-demand model and the rise of subscription-based delivery companies such as Stich Fix, Blue Apron, Dollar Shave Club, etc. It seems like these businesses are using this on demand model, and taking advantage of their “surplus” product that doesn’t get consumed because users don’t have time to go shopping for it. It seems like they are capitalizing on a shortage of time as well. Very interesting!

I think companies like eBay, Airbnb and Uber made a smart move by starting a very intelligent business model without owning actual “asset”. By utilizing these unused “asset” in the society, all they need to do is building a network of peers to work between these “asset” holders and the customers. These companies according to Harvard Business Review are Network Orchestrators (https://hbr.org/2014/11/what-airbnb-uber-and-alibaba-have-in-common). These businesses according to the article, are those who attract investors the most and they are believed are the ones to create the most business value compared to other traditional business models.