There are different ways to describe a Renaissance man; it might be a man of many parts, a man proficient in a wide range of fields, or a man who likes to dabble. The last description comes directly from said renaissance man James Toland, general manager of Morpheus Network.

The dabbling takes the form of being a filmmaker, musician, director, writer, restaurateur, actor, boxer, and vinyl collector. When not dabbling, Toland directs his energy into the world of emerging tech, blockchain, and Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN). He knew early on that to be competitive and to remain hirable; he needed to be ahead of emerging tech.

Imagine Thomas Edison Saying...

“Disruptive technology is where I am focused. I use the lightbulb analogy of where I am. Think back to the 1880s and the frontiers of the US. Now imagine Edison himself appears at your cabin door holding a light bulb.

“Imagine Edison says you don’t need candles or whale oil anymore; you can use electricity to light your home instead. Each bulb is the equivalent of 100 candles, and it’s much cheaper.

“But then Edison adds – just remember not to put your finger in the socket, or it’ll kill you. Now, that was disruptive technology in the 1880s. Nowadays, things move much faster, especially with digital technologies. I was one of the early adopters of computing, sitting in front of my toaster-like Apple, but things move so fast today. I call it bridging the gap and that is where I am – selling technology before it has crossed over the chasm into mass adoption.”

Toland has written a book about selling in this disruptive space, and it is called The Smartest Person In The Room: A Guide To Selling Disruptive Technology.

“Web1 was disruptive, as was Web2, and of course Web3 and blockchain is also very disruptive. We’re still at the painful point of Web3 with many growing pains. For example, I don’t think that Satoshi could have imagined the many uses of his distributed ledger technology, including verifying large amounts of data.”

Oldest Tech Known

According to Toland, ledgers are one of the oldest technologies known to humankind. He points out that we have always counted things, but now these ledgers are on steroids. At the same time, the things we are counting and the data we are consuming are growing at a pace faster than technology.

“Our appetite for data consumption is not scalable by big tech. There is not enough computer, cloud, chips, or server space. We need to look at distributed computing if we are going to cope with the proliferation of data over the next five years.” Traditionally, backups would protect data in the case of hardware failure, but there are not enough parts, and the supply chain is not working.

“That’s when people started taking distributed computing seriously – decentralized solutions where the data could not be lost, corrupted or deleted.”

Talking Supply Chains

Toland extends the analogy to supply chains, where traditional management consisted of paper-based tracking systems that were emailed, faxed, or couriered between the many entities involved.

“Friction is not your friend in supply chains. If something gets lost, then it can take weeks or even months to discover where the goods are – basically, there is no visibility. And then consider the predictability models needed to manage global supply chains.”

Technology can also address how to minimize emissions. Blockchain can verify and normalize the data, hashing it to create one immutable source of truth.

“Basically, we have created a system in Morpheus Network that delivers a notarized document that can be shared by a QR code. And by attaching it to a unique identifier, you only need a smart phone to look up the data. This is a game changer – disrupting the supply chain in a good way.”

Everything has a supply chain attached to it. It may be a simple chain from local farmers to farmers’ markets or a complex multi-enterprise chain.

“This is important because supply chains cause 75% of the world’s C02 emissions – you fix those, you fix the world.”

Toland was originally hired by Morpheus Network as an advisor but quickly realized he would add value to the sales and marketing growth strategies.

Going to Market

“We have sped up our go-to-market strategies and are much faster at releasing products. We are growing rapidly and working on some major government projects, too. Big brands and governments understand the security risks of not digitizing their documentation.”

Morpheus.Network offers its clients standardized digital documentation and an easy workflow platform that allows them to share this data with all their stakeholders. It has also integrated more than 150 partners that can make datasets as complex or as simple as needed.

Toland was drawn to work with Morpheus Network for several reasons: the new tech, solving age-old problems, and the integrity of the founders. He points out that it is already a late-stage company with many awards. The product has been battle-tested in the industry.

“Morpheus.Network builds solutions that are needed. It also looks at the bigger picture, such as lowering carbon emissions and making it cheaper to move products to people who need them. There is no reason emerging countries can’t access medicine or food because of cost. That is a failure of industrialized nations. Again, fix the supply chain, fix the world.”