Sally's advocacy work

Sally Eaves: I have come from a CTO background. I started my career with hands-on coding and then increasingly split my time across the management of tech, including the key aspects of people, values, and culture.

Application, for me, is massively important, but I also have a strong education and research background. So, today, as both a global tech advisor and a professor in emergent tech, I specialize in disciplines such as blockchain, AI, 5G, skills development, and business/IT alignment.

I care deeply about how we can apply tech and harness it for sustainable social impact at scale.

I work with organizations like the United Nations (UN), seeing where and how we can bring about business change and social impact change in tandem. I have also developed an international EdTech program called Aspirational Futures to open up access to opportunities. The program is focused on enhancing inclusion and diversity, alongside scaling up "tech for good" projects across the world.

Geertjan Wielenga: What do you see as being emergent tech?

Sally Eaves: Tech that breaks boundaries would be my core classification. Some of these techs have existed for many years, but critically, it is only now that the context is right that they can be applied and/or integrated.

AI is an example. With advances in computing power, alongside the cloud, the conditions became right for AI. We're in the era of implementation beyond the lab in specific fields. I have just been at the UN discussing how AI can contribute to progressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Transformation at scale is key to what I do.

Geertjan Wielenga: How did you get involved in the blockchain world?

Sally Eaves: A combination of education and practice. It was at a time when I had completed my MSc in tech and management and then was researching toward a PhD. At the same time, my day job was being a CTO. As part of this, I was looking at foresight horizon planning and what would be happening next, centered on the future of tech in transactions and beyond.

I became very excited by the idea of being able to prove identity and could see a real leapfrog opportunity there for under-represented groups from the unbanked to refugees. Everybody seemed to be talking about the cryptocurrency side, whereas, for me, it's always started from the underpinning tech and all the different applications that can come from that.

Geertjan Wielenga: In a nutshell, what does blockchain mean to you?

Sally Eaves: Blockchain is all about the secure, unchangeable, and transparent exchange of value, identity management, and the embedding of digitalized trust. Given the global trust deficit that is impacting all sectors, this is an imperative. Take DNA data, which is the most sensitive data that we all have. Although at an early stage, I think developments here offer a great demonstration of how we can use blockchain, AI, and machine learning together.

Blockchain can provide the security for DNA data sharing and gives the end user control and ownership. You can decide who you want to share your data with. In the past, particularly before the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there were examples of users effectively signing off their data to be used by multiple third parties and often without full awareness of the implications, meaning they no longer had control over where it had gone and what use it was being put to.

In the near future, you will be able to decide if you want to monetize your DNA (and indeed other forms of data) or equally, give it for free to a research trial of your choosing.

This can be a change maker for health studies, especially for groups such as ethnic minorities, where we simply do not have sufficient volumes of quality data to work with. Unless a disease or condition gets significant funding (for example, heart disease and specific forms of cancer), there just isn't that depth of quality data that can be mined with AI and machine learning to gain new insights and help more people. Applications of blockchain and tech integrations with such a high human impact potential really appeal to me.

Geertjan Wielenga: What is it about the world right now that has brought forth blockchain? Why wasn't blockchain around five or 10 years ago?

Sally Eaves: I think the advance and increased attention very much fits into a quest for democratization. For me, this especially relates to financial inclusion. We have five times more people in the world with a phone than a bank account, which I think is quite a staggering statistic. 1.7 billion people remain unbanked or underbanked. I recently attended the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona and opening up access to financial services was a key focus.

There is a fantastic opportunity to combine the prevalence of mobile phone availability, blockchain for identity, and AI to mine unstructured data to create a novel form of credit history. The rollout of 5G and simply improving connectivity and access more broadly is also key—this infrastructure imperative is often not talked about enough. For me, this is all about integration and cross-sector partnerships, which I'm very active in building and scaling.

Blockchain is a big part of it, but not all of it. I'm always looking for the gaps, whether that's mobile access, legacy systems, or education and awareness needs.

Our trust in systems and institutions is at an all-time global low, as I mentioned. This lack of trust is even affecting charities and social enterprise. It is touching every area of our lives and blockchain can help to embed that trust back. The media typically highlights and headlines stories on the darker side of tech by focusing on what tech might take away, especially around the future of work. This understandably creates fear and not trust. As advocates, we can help to provide some balance so that people can make informed choices. We can give a more holistic narrative on opportunities and challenges and talk about what tech can bring to home, work, and society.

Geertjan Wielenga: You've brought up the word "advocate" here. Do you see yourself as an advocate of something?

Sally Eaves: Yes, I consider myself to be an advocate of positive change, with tech being a core enabler for that to happen and critically, for that to happen sustainably and at scale. I'm not saying that people can't make a profit—of course, that is important—but we can also create, sustain, and scale social impact alongside it. In fact, I believe this is the future of good business.

Geertjan Wielenga: You mentioned refugees earlier. What's the connection between blockchain and refugees?