Paul Kemp-Robertson: Bitcoin. Sweat. Tide. Meet the future of branded currency.

Translator: Bledar Horeshka Reviewer: Helena Bedalli

So if I was to ask you

Nese ju pyes ju

what the connection between

çfare lidhje ekziston ndermjet

a bottle of Tide detergent and sweat was,

nje shishe Tide me detergjent dhe djersës,

you'd probably think that's the easiest question

ka gjasa qe ju te mendoni se kjo eshte pyetja me e thjeshte

that you're going to be asked in Edinburgh all week.

qe mund t'ju behet ne Edinburgh gjate gjithe javes.

But if I was to say that they're both examples

Por nese do te thoja se te dyja jane shembuj

of alternative or new forms of currency

formash te reja ose alternative te parasë

in a hyperconnected, data-driven global economy,

ne nje ekonomi super-te-lidhur dhe te udhehequr-nga-te-dhenat

you'd probably think I was a little bit bonkers.

ju do mendonit se jam pak i lajthitur.

But trust me, I work in advertising.

Por me besoni, une punoj ne reklame.

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

And I am going to tell you the answer,

Do t'ua tregoj pergjigjen,

but obviously after this short break.

por sigurisht pas ketij pushimi te shkruter.

So a more challenging question is one

Nje pyetje me sfiduese eshte ajo

that I was asked, actually, by one of our writers

qe me eshte bere mua, ne fakt, nga nje prej shkrimtarëve tane

a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't know the answer:

disa jave me pare dhe une s'e dija pergjigjen:

What's the world's best performing currency?

Cila eshte monedha me performancen me te mire ne bote ?

Ne fakt eshte Bitcoin.

It's actually Bitcoin.

Now, for those of you who may not be familiar,

Tani, per ata qe nuk dine shume ne lidhje me kete,

Bitcoin eshte nje monedhe virtuale, kripto-monedhe, monedhe artificiale.

Bitcoin is a crypto-currency, a virtual currency, synthetic currency.

It was founded in 2008 by this anonymous programmer

U krijua ne 2008 nga ky programues anonim

using a pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

duke perdorur pseudonimin Satoshi Nakamoto.

No one knows who or what he is.

Asnje nuk e di kush apo cfare eshte ai.

He's almost like the Banksy of the Internet.

Ai pothuajse eshte si Banksy i Internetit.

And I'm probably not going to do it proper service here,

Ndoshta nuk do jem duke bere nje sherbim ashtu sic duhet,

but my interpretation of how it works is that

por shpjegimi im se si kjo funksionon eshte se

Bitcoin-et leshohen përmes ketij procesi te quajtur "venie minash".

Bitcoins are released through this process of mining.

So there's a network of computers that are challenged

Ne kete menyre egziston nje rrjet kompjuterash qe sfidohen

to solve a very complex mathematical problem

per te zgjidhur nje problem matematikor shume kompleks

and the person that manages to solve it first gets the Bitcoins.

dhe personi qe ia del ta zgjidhe i pari merr Bitcoin-et.

And the Bitcoins are released,

Dhe Bitcoin-et leshohen,

they're put into a public ledger called the Blockchain,

vendosen ne nje bllok llogarish publike te quajtur Blockchain,

and then they float, so they become a currency,

dhe ato pastaj qarkullojne, keshtu ato behen monedhe,

and completely decentralized, that's the sort of

dhe eshte teresisht e decentralizuar, gje qe eshte pak a shume

scary thing about this, which is why it's so popular.

e frikshme ne lidhje me te, kjo e ben shume te njohur.

So it's not run by the authorities or the state.

Keshtu ajo nuk menaxhohet nga autoritetet apo shteti.

It's actually managed by the network.

Ne fakt menaxhohet nga rrjeti.

And the reason that it's proved very successful

Dhe arsyeja pse ka rezultuar e suksesshme

is it's private, it's anonymous, it's fast, and it's cheap.

eshte anonimiteti i saj, eshte e shpejte dhe e pakushtueshme.

And you do get to the point where there's some wild fluctuations with Bitcoin.

Dhe ju pastaj shkoni arrini ne piken ku ka luhatje te medha me Bitcoin.

So in one level it went from something like 13 dollars

Ne nje nivel arriti nga 13 dollarë ne 266,

to 266, literally in the space of four months,

ekzaktesisht ne harkun kohor prej 4 muajsh,

and then crashed and lost half of its value in six hours.

dhe pastaj deshtoi dhe humbi gjysmen e vleres se saj ne 6 muaj.

Aktualisht ndodhet ne ate pike vlere

And it's currently around that kind of

110 dollar mark in value.

prej 110 dollaresh.

But what it does show is that it's sort of gaining ground,

Por ajo cfare shihet eshte se po fiton terren,

it's gaining respectability.

po fiton respekt.

You get services, like Reddit and Wordpress

Ju keni sherbime, si Reddit dhe Wordpress

are actually accepting Bitcoin as a payment currency now.

qe pranojne Bitcoin si nje monedhe pagese.

And that's showing you that people

Kjo ju tregon qe njerezit

are actually placing trust in technology,

po besojne ne teknologji,

and it's started to trump and disrupt

dhe ka filluar te buçasë dhe përcajë

and interrogate traditional institutions

dhe te vërë ne pikepyetje institucionet tradicionale

and how we think about currencies and money.

dhe ate se si ne mendojme rreth monedhave dhe parasë.

And that's not surprising, if you think about

Dhe kjo nuk eshte per t'u habitur, nese mendoni rreth

the basket case that is the E.U.

fenomenit shporte, si E.U.

I think there was a Gallup survey out recently

mendoj qe ka pasur se fundi nje studim Gallup

that said something like, in America,

qe thoshte se ne Amerike,

trust in banks is at an all-time low, it's something like 21 percent.

besimi ne banka eshte me i ulti i gjithe koherave, dicka rreth 21 perqind.

And you can see here some photographs from London

Mund te shikoni ketu disa fotografi nga Londra

where Barclays sponsored the city bike scheme,

ku Barclays sponsorizoi skemen e biçikletes ne qytet,

and some activists have done some nice piece

dhe disa aktiviste kane bërë nje pune guerile

of guerrilla marketing here and doctored the slogans.

ne marketing dhe kane rregulluar slloganet

"Sub-prime pedaling." "Barclays takes you for a ride."

"Pedalim per te varferit." "Barclays ju ben nje xhiro".

These are the more polite ones I could share with you today.

Keto nga me te hijshmet qe mund t'i ndaj me ju sot.

But you get the gist, so people have really started

Por ju e kuptoni thelbin, njerezit me te vertete kane filluar

disi te humbin besimin tek institucionet.

to sort of lose faith in institutions.

There's a P.R. company called Edelman,

Eshte nje kompani marredheniesh me publikun e quajtur Edelman,

they do this very interesting survey every year

ato bejne nje studim interesant çdo vit

precisely around trust and what people are thinking.

pikerisht rreth besimit dhe se cfare mendojne njerezit.

And this is a global survey, so these numbers are global.

Dhe ky eshte nje studim global, keshtu qe te dhenat jane globale,

And what's interesting is that you can see that

Ajo cfare eshte interesante eshte qe ju mund te shihni qe

hierarkia po peson luhatje,

hierarchy is having a bit of a wobble,

and it's all about heterarchical now,

dhe tani eshte heterarki,,

so people trust people like themselves more

njerezit besojne njerez te tjere si vetja me teper

than they trust corporations and governments.

sesa korporatat apo qeverite.

And if you look at these figures for the more developed markets

Dhe nese i shikojme keto shifra per tregje me te zhvilluara

like U.K., Germany, and so on, they're actually much lower.

si Mbreteria e Bashkuar, Gjermania, e keshtu me rradhe, ato jane ne fakt shume me te ulta.

And I find that sort of scary.

Mua me duket disi e frikshme.

People are actually trusting businesspeople

Njerezit po besojne me teper biznesmenet

se sa besojne qeverite dhe drejtuesit.

more than they're trusting governments and leaders.

So what's starting to happen, if you think about money,

Cfare po ndodh, nese mendoni per paranë

if you sort of boil money down to an essence,

nese e zhveshim ate deri ne thelb,

it is literally just an expression of value, an agreed value.

eshte thjeshte nje shprehje vlere, nje vlere e rënë dakord mbi të.

So what's happening now, in the digital age,

Ajo qe po ndodh sot ne epoken dixhitale,

eshte se ne mund ta percaktojme sasine e vleres ne shume menyra te ndryshme

is that we can quantify value in lots of different ways

and do it more easily,

dhe ta bejme me me lehtesi,

and sometimes the way that we quantify those values,

dhe nganjehere menyra qe ne percaktojme sasine e ketyre vlerave,

it makes it much easier

e ben shume me te lehte

to create new forms and valid forms of currency.

krijimin e formave te reja dhe te vlefshme te monedhes.

In that context, you can see that networks like Bitcoin

Ne ate kontekst, ju mund at shihni qe rrjete si Bitcoin

suddenly start to make a bit more sense.

papritur fillojne te kene me shume kuptim.

So if you think we're starting to question

Nese mendoni se po fillojme te veme ne diskutim

and disrupt and interrogate what money means,

ate qe cfare kuptimi ka paraja,

what our relationship with it is, what defines money,

cfare lidhje kemi ne me te, cfare e perkufizon parane,

then the ultimate extension of that is,

dhe zgjatimi perfundimtar i saj eshte,

is there a reason for the government to be in charge

a ka ndonje arsye qe qeverite akoma

of money anymore?

te kene ne dore paranë ?

So obviously I'm looking at this through a marketing prism,

Qartesisht po e shikoj kete ne prizmin e marketingut,

keshtu ne kendveshtrimin e markes,

so from a brand perspective,

brands literally stand or fall on their reputations.

markat me tere kuptimin qendrojne ose bien nga reputacioni.

And if you think about it, reputation has now become a currency.

Nese mendoni rreth kesaj, reputacioni eshte bere nje monedhe.

You know, reputations are built on trust,

E dini, reputacionet ndertohen mbi besim,

consistency, transparency.

qendrueshmeri, transparence.

So if you've actually decided that you trust a brand,

Nese ne te vertete vendos te besoni ne nje marke,

you want a relationship, you want to engage with the brand,

ju doni nje marredhenie, doni te angazhoheni me marken,

you're already kind of participating in lots of new forms

ju tashme jeni duke marre pjese ne shume forma te reja

of currency.

monedhe.

So you think about loyalty.

Keshtu mendoni per besnikerine.

Loyalty essentially is a micro-economy.

Besnikeria eshte ne thelb nje mikro-ekonomi.

You think about rewards schemes, air miles.

Pra mendoni per skemat e shperblimit ndaj besimit (milje ajrore).

The Economist said a few years ago that

The Economist ca vite me pare tha

there are actually more unredeemed air miles in the world

qe ne fakt ka me shume milje ajrore te pashperblyera ne bote

than there are dollar bills in circulation.

se sa ka kartmonedha dollaresh ne qakullim.

You know, when you are standing in line in Starbucks,

E keni parasysh, kur qendroni ne rradhe tek Starbucks,

30 percent of transactions in Starbucks on any one day

30 perqind e transaksioneve ne Starbucks ne cdo dite

are actually being made with Starbucks Star points.

ne fakt behen me pike Star te Starbucks.

So that's a sort of Starbucks currency

Ajo eshte nje lloj monedhe of Starbucks

staying within its ecosystem.

qe qendron brenda ekosistemit te saj.

And what I find interesting is that Amazon

Ajo cka me duket interesante eshte qe Amazon

has recently launched Amazon coins.

se fundi ka leshuar monedhat Amazon.

So admittedly it's a currency at the moment that's purely for the Kindle.

Eshte pranueshme qe eshte nje monedhe qartesisht per Kindle.

So you can buy apps and make purchases within those apps,

Mund te bleni aplikacione dhe te beni blerje brenda atyre aplikacioneve,

but you think about Amazon,

por mendoni per Amazon,

you look at the trust barometer that I showed you

shikoni tek barometri i besimit qe iu tregova

where people are starting to trust businesses,

ku njerezit kane filluar te besojne bizneset,

especially businesses that they believe in and trust

sidomos bizneset te cileve u besojne dhe kane besim

me shume sa qeverite.

more than governments.

So suddenly, you start thinking,

Krejt papritur, ju filloi te mendoni,

well Amazon potentially could push this.

dakord Amazon mund ta kishte shtyre kete.

It could become a natural extension,

Mund te behej nje zgjatim natyral,

that as well as buying stuff --

qe gjiithashtu blen gjera --

po te mos llogarisim Kindle -- ju mund te bleni libra, muzike,

take it out of the Kindle -- you could buy books, music,

real-life products, appliances and goods and so on.

produkte reale, pajisje and mallra dhe keshtu me rradhe.

And suddenly you're getting Amazon, as a brand,

Papritur ju po e shihni Amazon si nje marke,

is going head to head with the Federal Reserve

qe po shkon koke me koke me Reserven Federale

in terms of how you want to spend your money,

per sa i perket menyres qe deshironi t'i shpenzoni parate,

what money is, what constitutes money.

cfare eshte paraja, cfare e perben parane.

And I'll get you back to Tide, the detergent now,

Dhe do te ktheheni tek detergjenti Tide tani,

as I promised.

sic premtova.

This is a fantastic article I came across in New York Magazine,

Ky eshte nje artikull fantastik qe e hasa ne revisten New York Magazine,

where it was saying that drug users across America

ku thoshte qe perdoruesit e droges ne te gjithe Ameriken

are actually purchasing drugs

po blejne droge

with bottles of Tide detergent.

me shishe detergjent Tide.

So they're going into convenience stores,

Ato shkojne ne dyqane te aferta,

stealing Tide,

vjedhin Tide,

and a $20 bottle of Tide

dhe nje shishe Tide 20 dollareshe

is equal to 10 dollars of crack cocaine or weed.

eshte e barabarte me 10 dollare kokaine ose mariuane.

And what they're saying, so some criminologists

Dhe cfare thone ato, ca kriminologjiste

have looked at this and they're saying, well, okay,

kane shikuar kete dhe thone, dakord, ne rregull,

Tide si produkt shitet me vlere me te larte.

Tide as a product sells at a premium.

It's 50 percent above the category average.

Eshte 50 perqind me shume se mesatarja e kategorise.

It's infused with a very complex cocktail of chemicals,

Eshte e mbushur me nje koktej kimikatesh shume komplekse

so it smells very luxurious and very distinctive,

keshtu qe ka nje ere shume te pasur dhe te dallueshme,

and, being a Procter and Gamble brand,

dhe duke qene nje marke Procter and Gamble,

it's been supported by a lot of mass media advertising.

eshte suportuar nga shume masmedia reklamimi.

So what they're saying is that drug users are consumers too,

Ajo cfare ato thone eshte se perdoruesit e droges jane gjithashtu konsumatore,

so they have this in their neural pathways.

keshtu qe ato e kane kete ne rruget e tyre neurale.

When they spot Tide, there's a shortcut.

Kur e shikojne Tide, ka nje rruge te shkruter.

They say, that is trust. I trust that. That's quality.

Ato thone, ky eshte besim. Une e besoj ate. Eshte kualitet.

So it becomes this unit of currency,

Keshtu behet nje njesi monedhe,

which the New York Magazine described

te cilen revista New York Magazine e pershkroi

as a very oddly loyal crime wave, brand-loyal crime wave,

si nje vale krimi te besueshme shume te cuditshme, vale krimi me besim tek marka,

and criminals are actually calling Tide "liquid gold."

dhe kriminelet po e quajne Tide "ari i lengshem"

Now, what I thought was funny was the reaction

Ajo cfare une e mendoja si qesharake ishte reagimi

nga zedhenesja e P&G.

from the P&G spokesperson.

They said, obviously tried to dissociate themselves from drugs,

Ato thane, qartesisht e distancuan veten nga drogat,

por tha,

but said, "It reminds me of one thing

and that's the value of the brand has stayed consistent." (Laughter)

dhe kjo eshte qe vlera e markes ka qene e qendrueshme." (Qesh)

Which backs up my point and shows he didn't even

Qe mbeshtet argumentin tim dhe tregon qe ai as nuk

break a sweat when he said that.

u djersit kur e tha kete.

So that brings me back to the connection with sweat.

Keshtu kjo me kthen tek lidhja me djersen.

In Mexico, Nike has run a campaign recently

Ne Meksike, Nike ka drejtuar nje fushate se fundmi

called, literally, Bid Your Sweat.

te quajtur, ekzaktesisht, Ofroni Djersen Tuaj.

So you think about,

Mendoni rreth kesaj,

these Nike shoes have got sensors in them,

kete kepuce Nike kane sensore brenda tyre,

or you're using a Nike FuelBand

ose ju po perdorni nje Nike FuelBand

qe thjesht regjistron levizjet tuaja, energjine tuaj,

that basically tracks your movement, your energy,

your calorie consumption.

konsumin tuaj kalorik.

And what's happening here, this is where you've actually

Ajo cfare po ndodh ketu,

elected to join that Nike community. You've bought into it.

ju keni zgjedhur te jeni pjese e komunitetit Nike. Ju keni blere prej tyre.

They're not advertising loud messages at you,

Ato nuk po bejne reklama duke bertitur drejt jush,

and that's where advertising has started to shift now

dhe ja ku reklamimi ka filluar te zhvendoset tani

is into things like services, tools and applications.

eshte ne gjera sic jane sherbimet, mjetet dhe aplikimet.

So Nike is literally acting as a well-being partner,

Keshtu Nike tamam po vepron si nje partner i mbarevajtur,

a health and fitness partner and service provider.

nje partner ne shendet dhe fitnes dhe nje sigurues sherbimi.

So what happens with this is they're saying, "Right,

Ajo cfare ndodh me kete eshte se ato thone, "Dakord,

you have a data dashboard. We know how far you've run,

ju keni nje panel kontrolli mbi te dhenat. Ne e dime sa larg keni vrapuar,

how far you've moved, what your calorie intake, all that sort of stuff.

sa larg keni shkuar, kalorite tuaja te marra, te gjitha keto lloj gjerash.

What you can do is, the more you run, the more points you get,

Ajo cfare mund te beni eshte, sa me shume vraponi, aq me shume pike fitoni,

and we have an auction where you can buy Nike stuff

dhe ne kemi nje ankand ku mund te bleni gjera Nike

but only by proving that you've actually used the product to do stuff."

por vetem duke vertetuar qe ne fakt ju keni perdorur produktin per te blere gjera."

And you can't come into this. This is purely

Dhe ju smund te futeni ketu. Kjo eshte qartesisht

for the community that are sweating

per komunitetin qe po djersijne

using Nike products. You can't buy stuff with pesos.

duke perdorur produkte Nike. S''mund te bleni gjera me pesos.

This is literally a closed environment, a closed auction space.

Ky eshte egzaktesisht nje ambjent i mbyllur, nje hapesire ankandi e mbyllur.

In Africa, you know, airtime has become

Ne Afrike, ju e dini, qe minutat e celularit jane bere

literally a currency in its own right.

pikerisht nje monedhe me kuptimin e plote te fjales.

People are used to, because mobile is king,

Njerezit jane mesuar, sepse celulari eshte mbret,

they're very, very used to transferring money,

eshte bere shume e zakonshme te transferohen para,

making payments via mobile.

duke bere pagese nepermjet celularit.

And one of my favorite examples from a brand perspective

Dhe nje nga shembujt me te parapelqyer nga une shikuar ne perspektiven e markes

going on is Vodafone, where, in Egypt,

eshte Vodafone, ku ne Egjypt,

lots of people make purchases in markets

shume njerez bejne blerje ne tregje

and very small independent stores.

dhe dyqane shume te vogla te pavarura.

Loose change, small change is a real problem,

Kusuri shume i vogel eshte nje problem real,

and what tends to happen is you buy a bunch of stuff,

dhe tendenca eshte qe ju bleni nje grumbull me gjera,

le te themi ju mbetet borxh,

you're due, say,

10 cente, 20 cente si kusur.

10 cents, 20 cents in change.

The shopkeepers tend to give you things like an onion

Shitesi ka tendence t'iu jape gjera si nje qepe

or an aspirin, or a piece of gum,

ose nje aspirine, or nje camcakez,

because they don't have small change.

sepse ato s'kane kusur te vogel.

So when Vodafone came in and saw this problem,

Keshtu kur erdhi Vodafone dhe e pa kete problem,

this consumer pain point, they created

kete pike dhimbjeje per konsumatorin, ato krijuan

some small change which they call Fakka,

kusure te vogla te cilat i quajten Fakka,

which literally sits and is given

qe pershtatet tamam dhe i jepet

by the shopkeepers to people,

bleresit nga shitesi,

and it's credit that goes straight onto their mobile phone.

dhe eshte kredit qe shkon drejt ne celularin e tyre.

So this currency becomes credit, which again,

Kjo monedhe behet kredit, i cili perseri,

is really, really interesting.

eshte me te vertete shume interesant.

And we did a survey that backs up the fact that,

Ne beme nje anketim qe mbeshtet faktin qe,

you know, 45 percent of people

45 perqind e njerezve

in this very crucial demographic in the U.S.

ne demografine teper te rendesishme te SH.B.A

were saying that they're comfortable using

thone qe jane te kenaqur duke perdorur

an independent or branded currency.

nje monedhe te pavarur ose te brand-uar.

So that's getting really interesting here,

Keshtu kjo po behet shume interesante,

nje dinamike shume interesante po ndodh.

a really interesting dynamic going on.

And you think, corporations

Mendoni, korporatat

should start taking their assets and thinking of them

duhet te fillojne te mendojne rreth aseteve te tyre

in a different way and trading them.

ne nje menyre te ndryshme dhe t'i tregetojne ato.

And you think, is it much of a leap?

Eshte me te vertete nje kapercim?

It seems farfetched, but when you think about it,

Duket e panatyrshme, por kur mendoni rreth saj,

in America in 1860,

ne Amerike ne 1860,

there were 1,600 corporations issuing banknotes.

kishte 1600 korporata qe perdornin bankenota.

There were 8,000 kinds of notes in America.

Kishte 8000 lloje kartash ne Amerike.

And the only thing that stopped that,

Dhe e vetmja qe e ndaloi ate,

the government controlled four percent of the supply,

qeveria kontrolloi 4 perqind te furnizimit,

and the only thing that stopped it

dhe e vetmja gje qe e ndaloi ate

ishte shperthimi i Luftes Civile

was the Civil War breaking out,

and the government suddenly wanted to take control of the money.

dhe qeveria papritur donte te merte ne kontroll parane.

So government, money, war, nothing changes there, then.

Keshtu qeveria, paraja, lufta, asgje nuk ndryshon ketu atehere.

So what I'm going to ask is, basically,

Ajo cfare do te pyes eshte, thjesht,

is history repeating itself?

a po e perserit veten historia ?

Is technology making paper money feel outmoded?

A po e ben teknologjia parane leter te ndihet si e dale jashte mode ?

Are we decoupling money from the government?

A po e ndajme parane nga qeveria?

You know, you think about, brands are starting to fill the gaps.

E keni parasysh, mendoni perseri, markat po fillojne te mbushin boshlleqet.

Corporations are filling gaps that governments can't afford to fill.

Korporatat po mbushin boshlleqet qe qeverite nuk munden.

So I think, you know, will we be standing on stage

Mendoj, e keni parasysh, do te jemi duke qendruar ne skene

buying a coffee -- organic, fair trade coffee -- next year

duke blere nje kafe -- organike, kafe me tregti te ndershme -- ne vitin tjeter

using TED florins or TED shillings?

duke perdorur florinet TED ose shilingat TED ?

Thank you very much.

Shume faleminderit.

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)

Thank you. (Applause)

Faleminderit.(Duartrokitje)