Vagueware taking over tech

Too many companies and startups these days are vague about the technology in their products, writes

specifics about how its products will use blockchain.

It’s not just blockchain startups coming out with dubious white papers. Kodak is trying to cash in on the cryptocurrency craze with a project called KodakCoin. It’s being marketed as ‘‘a photo-centric cryptocurrency to empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management’’.

The announcement caused a large spike in Kodak’s stock price. But on closer inspection, the project lacked specifics. The New York Times lambasted the white paper of KodakCoin, calling it ‘‘a 40-page mishmash of marketing buzzwords and vague diagrams’’.

A Bloomberg article also ripped into KodakCoin, noting that ‘‘there is nothing especially crypto, or blockchain, about this project’’. The main point of blockchain technology is to decentralise data. But according to Bloomberg, KodakCoin is simply a ‘‘centralised database of photo rights’’.

Let’s not forget our own Eric Watson’s venture into vagueware. An American company that Watson part-owns, Long Island Iced Tea Corp, hilariously rebranded itself in December to ‘‘Long Blockchain Corp’’. Overnight, the stock price tripled.

So how much progress has Watson’s company made on blockchain technologies in the past six weeks? I’m glad you asked, because Long Blockchain Corp issued a formal update to Nasdaq just last week. Ahem, the exbeverage company announced it has formed ‘‘a Blockchain Strategy Committee’’.

I presume a white paper is in the works then.

Richard MacManus (@ricmac) founded tech blog ReadWrite Web in 2003 and has since become an internationally recognised commentator on what’s next in technology and what it means for society.