According to Forbes, long-term couples who had been married for nine or more years got divorced due to infidelity and a lack of intimacy. These are factors linked to trust and transparency. Trust and transparency are key foundations for any relationship, whether personal or business. In the case of the new internet world, Web3.0 powered by Blockchain, these fundamentals are not different.

An essential Blockchain building block business leaders must understand is Trust & Transparency. As with any strong community, these elements foster consistent growth and sustainability of the entire Blockchain network. Through decentralization, consensus mechanisms, immutability among many other features of blockchain that promote trust and transparency, business leaders can leverage this building block to build, grow and scale their solutions and organization.

“Because blockchain uses a distributed ledger, transactions and data are recorded identically in multiple locations. All network participants with permissioned access see the same information at the same time, providing full transparency. All transactions are immutability recorded, and are time- and date-stamped.” - Source, IBM

In Blockchain, Trust & Transparency is established innately due to its decentralized nature. All transactions are recorded identically and are visible to all nodes across the network. This enables transparency across the network. Although the transactions are visible across the network, privacy is not compromised because Blockchain users can stay anonymous using public key addresses to protect the identity of users while preserving transparency.

“Blockchain is sometimes called a “trustless” network — not because business partners don’t trust each other, but because they don’t have to. This trust is built on blockchain’s enhanced security, greater transparency, and instant traceability.” - Source, IBM

Also, all transactions are immutable. Once a block has been added to the blockchain, it cannot be easily changed or tampered with. With Blockchain’s use of consensus mechanism algorithms for decision making across the network, all transactions are validated by a network of computers before it is added to the block. This also eliminates 3rd party institutions from making centralized or monopolized decisions for all users. This enables trust among the users in the network.

For many African businesses, customers usually struggle with trust and transparency because of the dynamics of doing business on the continent. Business leaders can leverage the trust and transparency element that Blockchain offers to build organizations, develop products and provide services that their customers and investors can trust while maintaining transparency of doing business. For example, an Agri-business leader in Africa using Blockchain for their entire supply chain or even a part of it can create a more trustworthy and efficient business and solutions for itself, its customers and investors. This not only places such leaders at the cutting edge of innovation on the continent but it also elevates its business operations.

Dimitri Technology is leveraging blockchain in Africa to improve trust and transparency by providing farmers anonymity, a secure track and trace of produce, and immutability. For example, they have partnered with The Libyan Government to digitize their agricultural sector through blockchain applications. They have also partnered with One Million Avocados (OMA), a Kenyan startup, to increase the production and quality of East African avocados using trace technology.

Although trust and transparency is fostered with Blockchain and has many advantages for businesses and organizations, technical expertise and understanding of Blockchain is required to properly implement it. I recommend that leaders start to educate themselves, train and upskill their current employees and hire experts within the field in order to better position themselves and their organization to reap the benefits of implementing blockchain and to be ready to do business in the Web3.0 world.