Nothing Sells Like Bad News: The Cost of Reputation

Reputation is one of the most difficult currency to earn and the easiest to lose. Just ask your socks. All it takes is one frayed thread dangling out and its place in the drawer is no longer certain. Same reason why most brands spend millions on developing, maintaining, and enhancing their public relations. However, while these companies will go to great lengths to keep their public profiles pristine, not much is being done about one of the most fundamental profile for survival - debt.

Estimated at $9 trillion , corporate debt is rapidly becoming the stuff global economic crisis nightmare fuels are made of. Experts continue to point out its eerie similarities between the subprime mortgages that brought the global economy to its knees in 2007 and lower-grade corporate debt market, especially debt-to-equity. The debt-to-equity ratio of any company is the most common metric for measuring its stability, painting a vivid picture of its operational flexibility and sustainability. Good debt ratio affords companies a higher degree of maneuverability in the market and may help fund expansion plans. Doesn’t matter how you slice a bad debt ratio though, it’s always doom, gloom, and damnation at the end of it all.

While slapping the “global crisis” label on anything is a surefire way to drag eyeballs to the issue being raised, rarely have these warnings been able to prevent the trainwreck they’ve been signposting.

So, what do we do? Bury our heads in the sands and wait for these house of cards propping up the socio-economic activities of most countries to come crashing down? Or keep signposting and hoping someone will see this sign before it's too late and pump the breaks?

Not with the power of the blockchain at our disposal.

Reputation is an intangible currency. Reputation is a currency company spend among stakeholders - internal and external. Reputation for internal stakeholders - the CEO, employers, board members, attorney, and advisors - not only increase the overall value of the company, it also fosters loyalty, respect, and drives productivity forward. External stakeholders - investors and the general public - want to either benefit from the success of the company, be a part of it, and gain value from it.

According to a report by Reputation Review Report, a bad one not only turns up at inopportune times but can also result in a loss of value and increased hiring costs.

"The evidence demonstrates that a reputation crisis, where a company might lose more than one-fifth of its value suddenly and unexpectedly, carries an 80% likelihood in a five-year period. In an age of instant and global communications, it is more important than ever to have in place a reputation monitoring system to identify emerging threats and provide senior management useful intelligence," states the report.

In this hyperconnected world, any reputation - and its propagation - is just a click away, and nothing sells like bad reputations tend to catch on like wildfire, burning down an estimated $500 billion annually. The internet has become one of the most important tools in a new policy of shaming debtors. Slovenia published a list that named and shamed 16,000 tax delinquents to widespread acclaim. However, information dissemination on the internet is centralized, fraught with security risk, difficult to verify, and susceptible to a single point of failure.

The blockchain is not.

The blockchain’s distributed and decentralized ledger system is an immutable and tamperproof network that can be accessed by anyone from anywhere with no restriction. While certain PR companies may pride themselves in being able to sweep bad reputations under the rug, information recorded on the blockchain cannot be manipulated or tampered with. This immutable foundation is the basis for the Joos Protocol revolution of the debt industry.

Joos Protocol is the worlds first distributed third-party debt registrar and social debt collection agency with the lowest fees and fastest solution. Powered by the blockchain, the network allows users to verify and validate debtors through an intuitive and automated debt collection system. Debt can be collated and monitored autonomously through the blockchain and across a global audience of incentivized digital debt collectors.

Using an immutable distributed ledger and with the help of “validators” your debtor's list is verified and data integrity is maintained. At the event of default – 1st and 2nd follow-ups are automated mail outs and SMS. Third response sets off the social debt collection response. Details of the debt and a bounty are sent out to the network. “collectors” then work using digital and social pressure to remedy account discrepancies. After all, nothing sells like bad news...