106: Sam Radocchia—Ready To Trust Blockchain With Everything From Your Food To Your Taxes?

Listen now as Sam Radocchia talks about the great things blockchain is capable of! 

Sam (Samantha) Radocchia and I are both big fans of the new technologies that are emerging, particularly blockchain, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. In our podcast, we dig deeply into how these influential innovations are taking hold far more quickly than observers had anticipated. Why? Because individually and combined, they are major transformations of how we do things today. Feeling left behind? No need! Listen in and you’ll quickly be in the loop.

Want to able to trust your food’s history? Trust blockchain.

C1QskfmUcAAqNPu.jpgSam became interested in blockchain as a means to facilitate trusted interoperability, a challenge she had to overcome while developing her own companies. With WalMart now demanding that their meat and produce providers use blockchain to track and trace the food supply, and Wyoming beef producers relying on blockchain to ensure you are getting the grass-fed beef you are expecting, blockchain is moving from the someday into the everyday world we now live in. 

Why is blockchain so disruptive and scary to people?

People don’t really know how their banking system works or how their taxes get paid. But they do know when their data has been stolen or their credit cards have been hacked. They don’t quite understand how the blockchain system works either. What would help is a simpler way to explain how this new futuristic system will replace old ones that are neither secure nor dependable. 

Sounds to me like a Blue Ocean® opportunity! 

Sam thought so too. That’s why in 2014, she co-founded Chronicled, an enterprise software company that leverages blockchain, IoT and peer to peer messaging technology to deliver smart supply chain solutions without revealing private data. 

As Sam explains in our podcast conversation, she has always been fascinated with technology and its impact on our society and culture. Blockchain’s proposition is that of decentralized trust. For this to happen, we have to totally rethink our current economic systems, socio-political structures, norms and mores. This metamorphosis is both exhilarating and terrifying to existing systems. As a culture change expert, this makes a lot of sense to me. Clearly, a lot of people’s resistance to blockchain is their resistance to change itself.

Sam says: “I want to see blockchain used for the better, not just for profit.” 

With blockchain, Sam says, we can eliminate counterfeit drugs killing people. We can eliminate fraud, and track and trace our food supply. We can develop ways to ensure our health records are accurate and easily available to those we want to share them with. Diamonds can be tagged. Poultry and eggs can be marked and tracked. Even your tax returns can be paid on your blockchain system. Behold the future!

A little more about Sam

As well as being the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Chronicled, Sam is a Co-Founder of Better Kinds, a global blockchain-based network that allows consumers to scan a product with a mobile app and validate anything from its origin to its ingredients. Better Kinds also enables purchasers to measure and score a company’s or product’s social impact and sustainability performance before they buy. 

Recently named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List, Sam is also the founder of Machine Elf Consulting, an emerging technology and product development consulting firm focusing on blockchain, IoT and manufacturing advisement to enterprises.

On the personal side, Sam is an avid risk taker, acquiring her pilot’s license at the age of 17 and accumulating over 700 jumps as a competitive skydiver.

Additional resources:

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, “On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights” here