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Blockchain simplified: How it eliminates the middleman
What's the big promise of blockchain in business? Its ability to eliminate the middle man.
Tony Saldanha
Tony Saldanha is a Fortune 25 executive in the Global Business Services (GBS) and Information Technology area. During a 27-year career at Procter & Gamble, Saldanha ran IT and GBS in every region of the world, helping create a multi-billion dollar best-in-class operation. He currently provides advice to boards and CEOs in Fortune 500 companies on digital transformation, especially on internal business operations.
TONY SALDANHA: Blockchain is most commonly known because of bitcoin, the cryptocurrency. And by the way they're very different things. So blockchain is the underlying programming on top of which cryptocurrency, bitcoin, has been developed. Let me distinguish the two. Bitcoin is just one little application of blockchain. It is something that most enterprises will shy away from because it is speculative and I'm not here to preach that companies go out and start trading using bitcoin. That would be a mistake. Blockchain is basically, you know, think of it as an excel spreadsheet. It is basically a big, big ledger in which everybody can put transactions but none of the sales, none of the values of those transactions can be messed around with, can be changed without, you know, everybody else saying oh, wait a minute. That particular sale was changed.
And because of that it is known to be unhackable. Now, the value of having an underlying platform that is available to the entire world to see if you have the appropriate kind of authorization and is known to be secure is obvious, right, because we know one of the biggest challenges when it comes to technology is somebody changing the values of my data. If you have an underlying platform that's known to be unhackable that provides a huge competitive advantage for most people. So potential users of blockchain could be everything from, you know, let's take a voting mechanism. By the way blockchain is being used for voting in places like Dubai for their stock exchange or even Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for their actual people voting processes.
But there are more mundane uses of blockchain. You could use blockchain, for example, for intracompany financial transactions between the companies and both within companies as well. So instead of having your money go from your company to a bank to another company what if there was a common platform where you could actually have the best information that could not be hacked. That would eliminate the middleman. That is the promise of blockchain. It has the ability to eliminate the middle person because everybody has equal access to one version of the truth.
- Blockchain is basically a ledger of people's transactions. It is the underlying programming on top of which the cryptocurrency bitcoin was developed.
- Blockchain doesn't allow for people's transactions to be hacked because everyone has access to a record of the values exchanged. Because of this, it is said to be unhackable.
- Blockchain has many potential uses, such as in accounting systems. This is already the case in Dubai, where its used for the city's stock exchange, and in the Baltic states, such as Latvia and Lithuania, for their political processes.
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The “new normal” paradox: What COVID-19 has revealed about higher education
Higher education faces challenges that are unlike any other industry. What path will ASU, and universities like ASU, take in a post-COVID world?
25 June, 2020
Photo: Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images
Sponsored by Charles Koch Foundation
- Everywhere you turn, the idea that coronavirus has brought on a "new normal" is present and true. But for higher education, COVID-19 exposes a long list of pernicious old problems more than it presents new problems.
- It was widely known, yet ignored, that digital instruction must be embraced. When combined with traditional, in-person teaching, it can enhance student learning outcomes at scale.
- COVID-19 has forced institutions to understand that far too many higher education outcomes are determined by a student's family income, and in the context of COVID-19 this means that lower-income students, first-generation students and students of color will be disproportionately afflicted.
<p>In our efforts to understand COVID-19, contend with the suffering that it causes, and mount an appropriate response, it is tempting to resurrect well-worn clichés. One cliché in particular, the idea of a "new normal," stands out to us. One does not need to look far for thoughtful descriptions of how COVID-19 and its cascade of catastrophes are shaping so-called "new normals" for individuals, families, communities, and industries. But for one industry—higher education—COVID-19 exposes a long list of pernicious problems more than it presents <em>new</em> problems. For higher education, the new normal is partly an old normal that many ignored.</p>
<p>The notion of a new normal has always been compelling. You may recall this term <a href="https://www.morningstar.com/articles/293344/gross-predicts-a-new-normal" target="_blank">being used</a> widely in the wake of the Great Recession to describe the sea change in the U.S. labor and housing markets and the decreased public funding for higher education that followed. The phrase itself emerged from Vice President Dick Cheney's characterization of heightened security in the wake of 9/11 as a "<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1360697/Cheney-returns-with-warning-on-new-way-of-life.html" target="_blank">new normalcy</a>." Its perennial reuse reveals how the complex, highly interdependent systems that comprise our "normal" are designed to function only in a fragile state of equilibrium and are seldom prepared to adapt to unexpected shocks.</p>We know something about these shocks and the new normal they each created in higher education. For example, our institution, Arizona State University (ASU), is one of the largest in the country and the largest in the state that during the Great Recession cut more from higher education <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/a-lost-decade-in-higher-education-funding" target="_blank">than any other</a>. While we can learn from past negative events, we must appreciate that the conditions COVID-19 asks us to embrace as part of its new normal have been around for years—or even decades. While some of these have been widely appreciated, others were emerging suspicions. We describe a few of each here.
<blockquote>[F]or one industry—higher education—COVID-19 exposes a long list of pernicious problems more than it presents <em>new</em> problems. For higher education, the new normal is partly an old normal that many ignored.</blockquote>
What conditions of the new normal were already appreciated widely?
<p>First, we understand that higher education is unique among industries. Some industries are governed by markets. Others are run by governments. Most operate under the influence of both markets and governments. And then there's higher education. Higher education as an "industry" involves public, private, and for-profit universities operating at small, medium, large, and now massive scales. Some higher education industry actors are intense specialists; others are adept generalists. Some are fantastically wealthy; others are tragically poor. Some are embedded in large cities; others are carefully situated near farms and frontiers.</p> <p>These differences demonstrate just some of the complexities that shape higher education. Still, we understand that change in the industry is underway, and we must be active in directing it. Yet because of higher education's unique (and sometimes vexing) operational and structural conditions, many of the lessons from change management and the science of industrial transformation are only applicable in limited or highly modified ways. For evidence of this, one can look at various perspectives, including those that we have offered, on such topics as <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/rethinking-higher-education/lessons-disruption" target="_blank">disruption</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/education/learning/education-technology.html" target="_blank">technology management</a>, and so-called "<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/media/Excerpt_IHESpecialReport_Growing-Role-of-Mergers-in-Higher-Ed.pdf" target="_blank">mergers and acquisitions</a>" in higher education. In each of these spaces, the "market forces" and "market rules" for higher education are different than they are in business, or even in government. This has always been the case and it is made more obvious by COVID-19.</p> <p>Second, with so much excitement about innovation in higher education, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that students are—and should remain—the core cause for innovation. Higher education's capacity to absorb new ideas is strong. But the ideas that endure are those designed to benefit students, and therefore society. This is important to remember because not all innovations are designed with students in mind. The recent history of innovation in higher education includes several cautionary tales of what can happen when institutional interests—or worse, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/09/apollos-new-owners-seek-fresh-start-beleaguered-company" target="_blank">shareholder</a> interests—are placed above student well-being.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQxNTE2MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MzUxNTczMn0.b2suWVXqiXsK2tD5nur44iJEGL9YnCf6A7OnRKaHLDk/img.jpg?width=980" id="072f6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3bb66334e14248860438259de4c5c58e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Photo: Getty Images
<p>Third, it is abundantly apparent that universities must leverage technology to increase educational quality and access. The rapid shift to delivering an education that complies with social distancing guidelines speaks volumes about the adaptability of higher education institutions, but this transition has also posed unique difficulties for colleges and universities that had been slow to adopt digital education. The last decade has shown that online education, implemented effectively, can meet or even surpass the quality of in-person <a href="https://link-springer-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/article/10.1007/s10639-019-10027-z" target="_blank">instruction</a>.</p><p>Digital instruction, broadly defined, leverages online capabilities and integrates adaptive learning methodologies, predictive analytics, and innovations in instructional design to enable increased student engagement, personalized learning experiences, and improved learning outcomes. The ability of these technologies to transcend geographic barriers and to shrink the marginal cost of educating additional students makes them essential for delivering education at scale.</p><p>As a bonus, and it is no small thing given that they are the core cause for innovation, students embrace and enjoy digital instruction. It is their preference to learn in a format that leverages technology. This should not be a surprise; it is now how we live in all facets of life.</p><p>Still, we have only barely begun to conceive of the impact digital education will have. For example, emerging virtual and augmented reality technologies that facilitate interactive, hands-on learning will transform the way that learners acquire and apply new knowledge. Technology-enabled learning cannot replace the traditional college experience or ensure the survival of any specific college, but it can enhance student learning outcomes at scale. This has always been the case, and it is made more obvious by COVID-19.</p>What conditions of the new normal were emerging suspicions?
<p>Our collective thinking about the role of institutional or university-to-university collaboration and networking has benefitted from a new clarity in light of COVID-19. We now recognize more than ever that colleges and universities must work together to ensure that the American higher education system is resilient and sufficiently robust to meet the needs of students and their families.</p> <p>In recent weeks, various commentators have suggested that higher education will face a wave of institutional <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scott-galloway-predicts-colleges-will-close-due-to-pandemic-2020-5" target="_blank">closures</a> and consolidations and that large institutions with significant online instruction capacity will become dominant.</p> <p>While ASU is the largest public university in the United States by enrollment and among the most well-equipped in online education, we strongly oppose "let them fail" mindsets. The strength of American higher education relies on its institutional diversity, and on the ability of colleges and universities to meet the needs of their local communities and educate local students. The needs of learners are highly individualized, demanding a wide range of options to accommodate the aspirations and learning styles of every kind of student. Education will become less relevant and meaningful to students, and less responsive to local needs, if institutions of higher learning are allowed to fail. </p> <p>Preventing this outcome demands that colleges and universities work together to establish greater capacity for remote, distributed education. This will help institutions with fewer resources adapt to our new normal and continue to fulfill their mission of serving students, their families, and their communities. Many had suspected that collaboration and networking were preferable over letting vulnerable colleges fail. COVID-19's new normal seems to be confirming this.</p><blockquote>For ASU, and universities like ASU, the "new normal" of a post-COVID world looks surprisingly like the world we already knew was necessary. </blockquote>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQxNTEzMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDQwNzg5Nn0.IoxjZmDJBELgK-iDoeDSHCS4e6vJOG9V1UZEOshxYyY/img.jpg?width=980" id="fea0d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="201a0fd7ab8d677fbd324c1ccf3508f8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Obama Gives Commencement Address At Arizona State University" />
President Barack Obama delivers the commencement address during the Arizona State University graduation ceremony at Sun Devil Stadium May 13, 2009 in Tempe, Arizona. Over 65,000 people attended the graduation.
Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images
<p>A second condition of the new normal that many had suspected to be true in recent years is the limited role that any one university or type of university can play as an exemplar to universities more broadly. For decades, the evolution of higher education has been shaped by the widespread imitation of a small number of elite universities. Most public research universities could benefit from replicating Berkeley or Michigan. Most small private colleges did well by replicating Williams or Swarthmore. And all universities paid close attention to Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, and Yale. It is not an exaggeration to say that the logic of replication has guided the evolution of higher education for centuries, both in the US and abroad.</p><p>Only recently have we been able to move beyond replication to new strategies of change, and COVID-19 has confirmed the legitimacy of doing so. For example, cases such as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/03/10/harvard-moves-classes-online-advises-students-stay-home-after-spring-break-response-covid-19/" target="_blank">Harvard's</a> eviction of students over the course of less than one week or <a href="https://www.nhregister.com/news/coronavirus/article/Mayor-New-Haven-asks-for-coronavirus-help-Yale-15162606.php" target="_blank">Yale's apparent reluctance</a> to work with the city of New Haven, highlight that even higher education's legacy gold standards have limits and weaknesses. We are hopeful that the new normal will include a more active and earnest recognition that we need many types of universities. We think the new normal invites us to rethink the very nature of "gold standards" for higher education.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQxNTE2NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1Mzk1NTI2OH0.dVwxwZGWEchBanfqk0__G-AdIXJZ6rikNuWaoJnwUYI/img.jpg?width=980" id="592c4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9d47b93365752a3fd5f1ff46708f7f98" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A graduate student protests MIT's rejection of some evacuation exemption requests.
Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
<p>Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we had started to suspect and now understand that America's colleges and universities are among the many institutions of democracy and civil society that are, by their very design, incapable of being sufficiently responsive to the full spectrum of modern challenges and opportunities they face. Far too many higher education outcomes are determined by a student's family income, and in the context of COVID-19 this means that lower-income students, first-generation students and students of color will be disproportionately afflicted. And without new designs, we can expect postsecondary success for these same students to be as elusive in the new normal, as it was in the <a href="http://pellinstitute.org/indicators/reports_2019.shtml" target="_blank">old normal</a>. This is not just because some universities fail to sufficiently recognize and engage the promise of diversity, this is because few universities have been designed from the outset to effectively serve the unique needs of lower-income students, first-generation students and students of color.</p>Where can the new normal take us?
<p>As colleges and universities face the difficult realities of adapting to COVID-19, they also face an opportunity to rethink their operations and designs in order to respond to social needs with greater agility, adopt technology that enables education to be delivered at scale, and collaborate with each other in order to maintain the dynamism and resilience of the American higher education system.</p> <p>COVID-19 raises questions about the relevance, the quality, and the accessibility of higher education—and these are the same challenges higher education has been grappling with for years. </p> <p>ASU has been able to rapidly adapt to the present circumstances because we have spent nearly two decades not just anticipating but <em>driving</em> innovation in higher education. We have adopted a <a href="https://www.asu.edu/about/charter-mission-and-values" target="_blank">charter</a> that formalizes our definition of success in terms of "who we include and how they succeed" rather than "<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/17/forget-varsity-blues-madness-lets-talk-about-students-who-cant-afford-college/" target="_blank">who we exclude</a>." We adopted an entrepreneurial <a href="https://president.asu.edu/read/higher-logic" target="_blank">operating model</a> that moves at the speed of technological and social change. We have launched initiatives such as <a href="https://www.instride.com/how-it-works/" target="_blank">InStride</a>, a platform for delivering continuing education to learners already in the workforce. We developed our own robust technological capabilities in ASU <a href="https://edplus.asu.edu/" target="_blank">EdPlus</a>, a hub for research and development in digital learning that, even before the current crisis, allowed us to serve more than 45,000 fully online students. We have also created partnerships with other forward-thinking institutions in order to mutually strengthen our capabilities for educational accessibility and quality; this includes our role in co-founding the <a href="https://theuia.org/" target="_blank">University Innovation Alliance</a>, a consortium of 11 public research universities that share data and resources to serve students at scale. </p> <p>For ASU, and universities like ASU, the "new normal" of a post-COVID world looks surprisingly like the world we already knew was necessary. Our record breaking summer 2020 <a href="https://asunow.asu.edu/20200519-sun-devil-life-summer-enrollment-sets-asu-record" target="_blank">enrollment</a> speaks to this. What COVID demonstrates is that we were already headed in the right direction and necessitates that we continue forward with new intensity and, we hope, with more partners. In fact, rather than "new normal" we might just say, it's "go time." </p>
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Live on Tuesday | Personal finance in the COVID-19 era
Sallie Krawcheck and Bob Kulhan will be talking money, jobs, and how the pandemic will disproportionally affect women's finances.
04 July, 2020
Big Think LIVE
Add event to calendar
<p>
<strong>What should you be doing with your money during the coronavirus financial crisis?</strong> In this Big Think Live session, Sallie Krawcheck, CEO and co-founder of <a href="https://www.ellevest.com/" target="_blank">Ellevest</a>, a financial advisory and investment platform for women, will discuss personal finance and wealth-building career strategies with Bob Kulhan, founder and CEO of <a href="http://businessimprov.com/" target="_blank">Business Improv</a>. What steps can we take to guard ourselves from an uncertain financial future? <strong>Find out on Tuesday at 1 pm ET.</strong><br>
<br>
Ask your questions for Sallie Krawcheck during the Q&A!</p>
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How DNA revealed the woolly mammoth's fate – and what it teaches us today
Scientists uncovered the secrets of what drove some of the world's last remaining woolly mammoths to extinction.
04 July, 2020
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Surprising Science
Every summer, children on the Alaskan island of St Paul cool down in Lake Hill, a crater lake in an extinct volcano – unaware of the mysteries that lie beneath.
<p>
It was here, on a winter expedition, that scientists uncovered the secrets of what drove some of the world's last remaining woolly mammoths to extinction, and when it happened.
</p><p>
Dr Beth Shapiro is a paleo-geneticist, who co-runs the
<a href="https://pgl.soe.ucsc.edu/" target="_blank">Paleogenomics Lab</a> the University of California, Santa Cruz.
</p><p>
Using modern genomics techniques, her team looks back at the past to understand how species and populations have evolved through time, based on their DNA. It then applies those lessons to the conservation of endangered species today.
</p><p>
The genetic material from animals that lived in the northern hemisphere during the Ice Age, including bison, wolves, mammoths and horses, is particularly well preserved.
</p><p>
Dr Shapiro is able to extract DNA from samples, such as teeth, to see how species differed genetically and learn when populations were growing, when they were shrinking, when individual animals might have been moving long distances – and when they could not.
</p><p>
"Connectivity is a crucial part of many of these species' extinction stories," says Dr Shapiro.
</p><p>
And this is true of the fate of St Paul Island's woolly mammoths.
</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D1_Y8tqigo4" width="560">
</iframe>
<h3>When did mammoths roam the Earth?</h3><p>
Mammoths <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/uncovering-the-secrets-of-mammoth-island" target="_blank">lived on North America's mainland until about 10,000 years ago</a>, but they survived in two places for much longer: St Paul Island and Wrangel Island, in the Russian Arctic, where teeth have been found that are only 4,000 years old.
</p><p>
St Paul is a volcanic island that until around 9,000 years ago was connected to the mainland by the Bering Land Bridge, which enabled animals to roam freely to and fro.
</p><p>
But as the climate warmed and sea levels rose, it became isolated – and the mammoths were trapped. They were the only large mammal on the island, with no predators and, speaking at a <a href="https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2020/sessions/the-young-science-of-ancient-dna" target="_blank">BetaZone session at Davos</a>, Dr Shapiro said it would have been a "mammoth utopia".
</p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0CjCDRgPnqk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<h3>How did a lake reveal what happened?</h3><p>
Dr Shapiro explains: "Lakes are brilliant sources of ancient DNA, because they are a sink for genetic material during the summer. Lake Hill is the only source of fresh water on St Paul. So all the animals wander in to drink and the DNA they deposit sinks to the bottom and then freezes.
</p><p>
"Over time, you get accumulation like a stratigraphy of layer upon layer of everyone that was present on the island from the past to the present day. We knew if we could get a copy of this, we could figure out who was there, when and with whom."
</p><p>
On their winter expedition to Lake Hill, Dr Shapiro's team drilled down through the ice of the lake to the gravel at the bottom and extracted a core.
</p><p>
The genetic material, they later learned, dated back to 17,000 years ago.
</p><p>
"We took tiny little plugs of DNA all the way to the top, to the present day, and looked for mammoth DNA. We also looked at the vegetation and components of the lake itself to see if it was changing over time. Microscopic algae and microscopic animals, for example, can tell us whether the lake was salty or not and how shallow it was."
</p>
<h3>Why did the St Paul Island mammoths die?</h3><p>All of that data fit together like a jigsaw puzzle to show Dr Shapiro what had happened.</p><p>Mammoth DNA was present all the way from the bottom until around 5,600 years ago. Nothing changed with the vegetation, says Dr Shapiro, so they didn't run out of food.</p><p>"But everything else about the lake changed: the water chemistry changed; the rate of sediment accumulation changed. And that community of microorganisms completely turned from one that thrives in clear, deep fresh water to a community that prefers to live in very shallow, cloudy and slightly salty water."</p><p>All of which meant there had been a severe weather event, a drought, on St Paul Island. The lake started to dry up and the mammoths were left with nothing to drink.</p><p>"Had it happened 13,000 years ago, mammoths would have had another option. They could have wandered onto the mainland and looked for another source of fresh water. But they couldn't because they were on an island completely isolated, cut off from the mainland. Stuck. And so they became extinct."</p>
<h3>How can we protect isolated habitats today?</h3><p>Dr Shapiro warns the isolation that killed the mammoths on St Paul is threatening other species and biodiversity today.</p><p>"Islandization takes different forms where the habitats that we've chosen to protect are surrounded not by water, but by other things like farms and agriculture. By roads and highways and freeways. And by cities of all sizes.</p><p>"This places the plants and animals that live in these island habitats in a precarious situation. An extreme weather event or the introduction of a predator or disease can upset the balance of interactions taking place within these habitats, potentially leading to extinction."</p><p>Studies of other ancient animals using the same method, from woolly rhinos to Arctic horses and species of lion, have also shown connectivity is a key factor in extinction. <br></p><p>"The populations that remained became increasingly isolated from each other, both geographically and genetically, with each of these island populations functioning as their own tiny, isolated thing."</p><p>Any plan to protect and preserve endangered species must also give animals routes of escape to move between habitats or find new ones as the climate warms.</p><p>"This could mean building overpasses where animals can cross highways. We could create greenways, green roofs, city parks, green corridors along rivers and roads, and not just build walls or barriers that further fragment this already fragmented landscape."</p><p>The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative is an example of an organization doing just that – aiming to link Yellowstone National Park in the Western United States with the Yukon in Canada, where Dr Shapiro does most of her work.</p><p>"A sustainable future for biodiversity will require creativity," she says. "But it will also require collaboration."</p><p>Reprinted with permission of the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/dna-reveal-woolly-mammoth-fate-beth-shapiro/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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Dinosaur bone? Meteorite? These men's wedding bands are a real break from boredom.
Manly Bands wanted to improve on mens' wedding bands. Mission accomplished.
02 July, 2020
Sex & Relationships
- Manly Bands was founded in 2016 to provide better options and customer service in men's wedding bands.
- Unique materials include antler, dinosaur bones, meteorite, tungsten, and whiskey barrels.
- The company donates a portion of profits to charity every month.
<p>Johnathan Ruggiero needed a wedding band. As a bigger guy he had trouble finding one to fit his size 17 finger. Then he ran into another issue: His wedding was in a few weeks. He never realized you should take care of this a few months out. The cheapest ring he could find was $600. Even then, given his finger size, it would take four weeks. He also wasn't excited about the choices. His wife to be, Michelle, had a much better experience.</p><p>As Ruggiero puts it, "I did not expect it to be so difficult and so stressful."</p><p>Fast forward a few months. The newlyweds, temporarily relocated to Florida from Los Angeles, were figuring out the next phase of their careers. Johnathan had experience in web design and marketing, while Michelle's creative endeavors include writing and design. "This is our first real test as a married couple," Johnathan thought. "What are we going to do with the rest of our life and how are we going to financially survive this?"</p><p>Then they remembered the ring buying experience. Poor selection. Terrible customer service. Inflated prices. They knew they could do better. </p><p><a href="https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1473923&u=2216766&m=93947&urllink=&afftrack=" target="_blank">Manly Bands</a> was born. </p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b6f0ebd386e38312366f7c182264aea6"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dqbYBq7DpjM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>The Ruggerios set out to improve on all of Johnathan's bad experiences in the jewelry store. Michelle set to work designing rings and writing website copy; Johnathan spun up a website and applied his marketing chops. The goal was to create rings men are excited about without breaking their bank account. Nearly four years later and they've built a successful brand. </p><p>With a career in acting and music, Michelle was accustomed to branding. While the couple decided to take a "silly and fun" approach to their rings, materials in the bands were equally important. This is where Michelle got to implement her creativity. </p><p>The first material on their website to jump out at you is dinosaur bone—yes, as in those dinosaurs. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"One of our manufacturers started working with dinosaur bones," Michelle says. "They take smaller pieces of bone that museums can't use and grind them down to make a mosaic. They can put it in an inlay in three different colors."</p><p>Depending on where the dinosaur died, the resulting bone might be tan, reddish-brown, or jet black. Manly's ring, <a href="https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1473923&u=2216766&m=93947&urllink=&afftrack=" target="_blank">the Triceratops</a>, features all three. </p><p>After canvasing deep inside of the earth, they looked toward the heavens. Enter meteorite. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"They shave that in sheets and are able to put it in as an inlay. It's pure iron, which means it's heavy and feels significant. Also, every piece is different, so you're never going to get the same exact design. You truly have a unique band."</p><p>This causes Johnathan to jump in with his "dad joke."</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"The best part is when you mix meteorite and dinosaurs, you have a cursed ring because there's a little animosity between the two."</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM2NTA1NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0Njc5NjMzM30.zum6INbYuUMbqE1JNIf8zcTVRH-g2gdrA3yaLGRO3ls/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C56%2C0%2C38&height=700" id="7af9d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ca47fb749fc959b272623f9f16cb9a7b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>Whether antler, Cerakote, or tungsten, or more traditional fare like gold or Damascus steel, Manly Bands has greatly expanded the selection of men's rings. There's even a Whiskey Barrel collection. </p><p>By ordering in volume the prices stay low. Not having a storefront helps. In the tradition of Framebridge and Interior Define, Manly Bands is an internet-only enterprise, which is why customer service is their number-one concern. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"We're really just our shipping and warehouse operation, our designers, some manufacturers, and the marketing and customer service team," Johnathan says. "It's a different corporate set up in the sense that we can take those savings and pass it along to the customers."</p><p>In Manly Bands, Johnathan also found a calling. Growing up he always wanted to save the world. Though he realized that ambition is a bit grandiose, every month Manly Bands donates part of its proceeds to charitable causes. Just last week, they dropped off 10,000 face masks to first responders and hospital staff in Utah, the state the company now calls home. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Every month we try to do something different to spread the goodness around," Johnathan says. "In the last few months, we've tried to focus on organizations and groups helping with the COVID pandemic. We take it very seriously. We feel that if we're fortunate enough to live in a country where we can earn money because our culture allows us to have an amazing business, we should give back."</p>
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Conspicuous consumption is over. It’s all about intangibles now
These new status behaviours are what one expert calls 'inconspicuous consumption'.
04 July, 2020
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Tiffany
Politics & Current Affairs
In 1899, the economist Thorstein Veblen observed that silver spoons and corsets were markers of elite social position.
<p> In Veblen's now famous treatise <em>The Theory of the Leisure Class</em>, he coined the phrase 'conspicuous consumption' to denote the way that material objects were paraded as indicators of social position and status. More than 100 years later, conspicuous consumption is still part of the contemporary capitalist landscape, and yet today, luxury goods are significantly more accessible than in Veblen's time. This deluge of accessible luxury is a function of the mass-production economy of the 20th century, the outsourcing of production to China, and the cultivation of emerging markets where labour and materials are cheap. At the same time, we've seen the arrival of a middle-class consumer market that demands more material goods at cheaper price points.</p><p>However, the democratisation of consumer goods has made them far less useful as a means of displaying status. In the face of rising social inequality, both the rich and the middle classes own fancy TVs and nice handbags. They both lease SUVs, take airplanes, and go on cruises. On the surface, the ostensible consumer objects favoured by these two groups no longer reside in two completely different universes.</p><p>Given that everyone can now buy designer handbags and new cars, the rich have taken to using much more tacit signifiers of their social position. Yes, oligarchs and the superrich still show off their wealth with yachts and Bentleys and gated mansions. But the dramatic changes in elite spending are driven by a well-to-do, educated elite, or what I call the 'aspirational class'. This new elite cements its status through prizing knowledge and building cultural capital, not to mention the spending habits that go with it – preferring to spend on services, education and human-capital investments over purely material goods. These new status behaviours are what I call 'inconspicuous consumption'. None of the consumer choices that the term covers are inherently obvious or ostensibly material but they are, without question, exclusionary.</p>
<p>The rise of the aspirational class and its consumer habits is perhaps most salient in the United States. The US Consumer Expenditure Survey data reveals that, since 2007, the country's top 1 per cent (people earning upwards of $300,000 per year) are spending significantly less on material goods, while middle-income groups (earning approximately $70,000 per year) are spending the same, and their trend is upward. Eschewing an overt materialism, the rich are investing significantly more in education, retirement and health – all of which are immaterial, yet cost many times more than any handbag a middle-income consumer might buy. The top 1 per cent now devote the greatest share of their expenditures to inconspicuous consumption, with education forming a significant portion of this spend (accounting for almost 6 per cent of top 1 per cent household expenditures, compared with just over 1 per cent of middle-income spending). In fact, top 1 per cent spending on education has increased 3.5 times since 1996, while middle-income spending on education has remained flat over the same time period.</p><p>The vast chasm between middle-income and top 1 per cent spending on education in the US is particularly concerning because, unlike material goods, education has become more and more expensive in recent decades. Thus, there is a greater need to devote financial resources to education to be able to afford it at all. According to Consumer Expenditure Survey data from 2003-2013, the price of college tuition increased 80 per cent, while the cost of women's apparel increased by just 6 per cent over the same period. Middle-class lack of investment in education doesn't suggest a lack of prioritising as much as it reveals that, for those in the 40th-60th quintiles, education is so cost-prohibitive it's almost not worth trying to save for.</p><p>While much inconspicuous consumption is extremely expensive, it shows itself through less expensive but equally pronounced signalling – from reading <em>The</em> <em>Economist</em> to buying pasture-raised eggs. Inconspicuous consumption in other words, has become a shorthand through which the new elite signal their cultural capital to one another. In lockstep with the invoice for private preschool comes the knowledge that one should pack the lunchbox with quinoa crackers and organic fruit. One might think these culinary practices are a commonplace example of modern-day motherhood, but one only needs to step outside the upper-middle-class bubbles of the coastal cities of the US to observe very different lunch-bag norms, consisting of processed snacks and practically no fruit. Similarly, while time in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City might make one think that every American mother breastfeeds her child for a year, national statistics <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/data/reportcard.htm" target="_blank">report</a> that only 27 per cent of mothers fulfil this American Academy of Pediatrics goal (in Alabama, that figure hovers at 11 per cent).</p>
<p>Knowing these seemingly inexpensive social norms is itself a rite of passage into today's aspirational class. And that rite is far from costless: <em>The Economist</em> subscription might set one back only $100, but the awareness to subscribe and be seen with it tucked in one's bag is likely the iterative result of spending time in elite social milieus and expensive educational institutions that prize this publication and discuss its contents.</p><p>Perhaps most importantly, the new investment in inconspicuous consumption reproduces privilege in a way that previous conspicuous consumption could not. Knowing which <em>New Yorker</em> articles to reference or what small talk to engage in at the local farmers' market enables and displays the acquisition of cultural capital, thereby providing entry into social networks that, in turn, help to pave the way to elite jobs, key social and professional contacts, and private schools. In short, inconspicuous consumption confers social mobility.</p><p>More profoundly, investment in education, healthcare and retirement has a notable impact on consumers' quality of life, and also on the future life chances of the next generation. Today's inconspicuous consumption is a far more pernicious form of status spending than the conspicuous consumption of Veblen's time. Inconspicuous consumption – whether breastfeeding or education – is a means to a better quality of life and improved social mobility for one's own children, whereas conspicuous consumption is merely an end in itself – simply ostentation. For today's aspirational class, inconspicuous consumption choices secure and preserve social status, even if they do not necessarily display it.</p><p><a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10933.html" target="_blank"><em>The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class</em></a><em> by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett is out now through Princeton University Press.</em><img src="https://metrics.aeon.co/count/b10ffa20-4c3a-4ef2-8740-921999c3791a.gif" alt="Aeon counter – do not remove"></p><p>Elizabeth Currid-Halkett</p><p>This article was originally published at <a href="https://aeon.co/?utm_campaign=republished-article" target="_blank">Aeon</a> and has been republished under Creative Commons. Read the <a href="https://aeon.co/ideas/conspicuous-consumption-is-over-its-all-about-intangibles-now" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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