Between Now and Success

alex tapscott

Blockchain: What is it and why should financial advisors care about it?

With Alex Tapscott


Blockchain, the technology that underpins bitcoin, is primed to cause serious change to how we do business in the financial services industry.

Today’s podcast guest, Alex Tapscott, is the co-author of an important new book called, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World.

Alex describes blockchain as a vast, global distributed ledger where digital assets can be moved, stored, and managed securely and privately and where trust doesn’t need to be established by a third-party or an intermediary, but rather can be established in collaboration, cryptography and clever code.


Now, why am I talking about blockchain and why should you care as a financial advisor?

One simple reason…blockchain could fundamentally alter the way financial advisors interact with, connect to, and get paid by consumers. And it could cut billions of dollars out of the intermediary cost structure of the financial services industry.



Is this going to happen overnight? No. But you listen to my podcast because I keep you informed about where the industry is going, not where it’s been. You listen to my podcast because you want to be an advisor who takes full advantage of what’s coming around the bend so you can profitably make the turn instead of careening off the cliff.

Everything related to money whether it’s investing it, moving it, storing it, or monitoring it is being driven down to zero through algorithms and, in the near future, through blockchain. The historical value that financial advisors provide in managing money is becoming obsolete and advisors who don’t adjust to that will become obsolete, too.

The value that remains for financial advisors is in helping clients get more return on life for the money they do have. And I’ll have much more to say about this topic in the months to come. Stay tuned…


Buy Alex's new book, Blockchain Revolution

Follow Alex Tapscott on Twitter

Good background article on What is Blockchain from The Wall Street Journal

- McKinsey & Company interview with Don Tapscott on How Blockchains Could Change the World



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