What this domain covers
Frontier research earns attention easily and adoption rarely. The gap between the two is where most institutional money is wasted, and closing it requires a discipline that enthusiasm tends to erode.
This domain assesses quantum computing, distributed ledgers, artificial general intelligence and digital identity against a single consistent standard: what would have to be true for this to carry real economic weight, and how far away is that? Applied honestly, the standard produces uncomfortable answers in both directions — some technologies are further away than their advocates admit, and others are closer than their critics have noticed.
Digital identity receives particular attention here, because it is the least discussed and most consequential item on the list. Almost every ambition in digital government depends on it.
Topics inside this page
- 01Quantum ComputingError correction progress, realistic timelines, and what an enterprise should actually do about it this year.
- 02BlockchainThe narrow set of cases where distributed ledgers genuinely outperform — mostly where no single party can hold the record.
- 03AGIArtificial general intelligence, its governance, and how to reason about it without either dismissal or credulity.
- 04Frontier TechEmerging research with a credible path to economic weight, separated from research that merely photographs well.
- 05Digital IdentityThe foundation layer beneath payments, benefits, health records and credit — cheap to build first, expensive to retrofit.
All topics above are covered within this domain page — they are not separate pages.
Every frontier technology deserves the same question: what would have to be true for this to carry real economic weight, and how far away is that? Most answers are longer than the pitch decks suggest and shorter than the sceptics claim. Anubhav Sachar
Areas of focus
Each area anchors a distinct stream of writing within Innovation & Technology.
Quantum Computing
Error correction progress, realistic timelines, and what an enterprise should actually do about it this year.
Blockchain
The narrow set of cases where distributed ledgers genuinely outperform — mostly where no single party can hold the record.
AGI
Artificial general intelligence, its governance, and how to reason about it without either dismissal or credulity.
Frontier Tech
Emerging research with a credible path to economic weight, separated from research that merely photographs well.
Digital Identity
The foundation layer beneath payments, benefits, health records and credit — cheap to build first, expensive to retrofit.
Writing in Innovation & Technology
Digital Identity Is the Prerequisite, Not the Product
Every ambition in digital government — payments, benefits, health records, credit — collapses without a trustworthy identity layer beneath it. Yet it is consistently funded last.
Quantum Computing: Separating the Decade from the Demonstration
A sober reading of error-correction progress, what it implies for cryptographic migration timelines, and the small number of things worth doing about it immediately.
Blockchain After the Hype: Three Places It Still Wins
Strip away the speculation and a narrow set of genuine applications survives — almost all of them in settings where no single party can be trusted to hold the authoritative record.
Other domains
Artificial Intelligence
From deep learning foundations to sovereign national AI ecosystems
12 topics · 4 posts 02Geopolitics
Alliances, digital soft power and the credibility of institutions
5 topics · 3 posts 03Digital Economies
Inclusive growth, affordable access and the architecture of Vision 2050
5 topics · 3 posts 05Leadership & Strategy
Nation building, institutional reform and strategic resilience
5 topics · 3 posts 06My Journey
Engineer, founder, global strategist — and what changed at each step
3 topics · 3 posts 07Future Horizons
Speculative essays on convergence, scenarios and frontier predictions
3 topics · 3 posts 08Global Business Strategies
Fortune 2000 adoption, trade resilience and corporate diplomacy
6 topics · 3 posts