Challenging the Myths of Blockchain

We think we know but we have no idea

Bitcoin has been shown to have legitimate uses. Anyone holding bitcoin in Venezuela might tell you about its performance against their local currency; bitcoin is clearly valuable to anyone in an unstable monetary environment.

While governments around the world can create money at will, the supply of bitcoins cannot be changed: 21,000,000

As for buying drugs, bitcoin is easier for law enforcement to track than cash. An industry has emerged that utilizes machine learning and big data to tie transactions together and back to individuals. Bitcoin addresses are a bit like email addresses, they can and arguably will in time be tracked back to their operators.

Information contained in a public blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum is available to everyone. While coins such as Zcash and Monero provide the fundamental human right to transact privately, these applications are relatively new in cryptography time and over the coming years their ability to conceal information will be tested by the most technologically armed on earth.

Investing in cryptocurrency is high risk. While decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether are themselves prone to major price fluctuation, dabbling in the unregistered securities markets known as ICO’s, tokens and TGE’s is a game of skill with sophistication asymmetry that separates winners from losers in a fashion close to fantasy football or online poker.

the house always wins

While articles reference historic returns by cherry picking windows of time that delivered 1000x returns, trades after 50, 60 or 90% declines rarely make the news. The dynamics that drive cryptocurrency prices are obscure and in the hands of few, any charts showing trend lines or youtubers speaking of exorbitant returns can be taken with a few grains of salt.

Add to volatile price dynamics the responsibility each of us takes on as a result of ‘become your own bank’. Once cryptocurrency has changed hands on the blockchain, it can be said with near certainty that it is not coming back.

It is on each of us to properly secure our cryptocurrency

These new technologies exist with the ever-present risk of being replaced, and every day hundreds of teams armed with lessons learned and abundant open source code toil away with the sole intention of creating something better.

Blockchain is applicable outside of cryptocurrencies. Nearly every Fortune 500 has gone on record as researching applications of blockchain. Everything from securing medical records to tracking shipments of tuna to recording the temperature in a shipping container. Patents have been filed and hundreds of notable companies have joined industry consortia such as the Hyperledger Foundation and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

There is a chance that blockchain will in time replace many of the roles that exist to keep organizations operating in sync.

While blockchain is rapidly growing in visibility and proposed applications, these systems are still in their infancy. Development and adoption is hampered by particularly tricky technical and design issues that some of the brightest minds in the world spend their days working out.

No shortage of criticism has been thrown at established networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum of their challenges to effectively support a growing user base, as well as the arcane details of their operation that have led to an untold amount in lost cryptocurrency over the years.

In the face of difficulty and an uncertain road forward, tens of thousands of engineers, lawyers, finance professionals and regulators go to work each day building a blockchain-powered world.

While we do not know what this world will look like, we can see a glimpse of the nebulous new organizations that may arise by comparing the entirety of the Bitcoin community to the world’s banks.

Blockchain is for everyone. While the internet was developed by a relatively small group, billions of people around the world now use it every day. Blockchain arguably has already made an impact on the operation of remittance providers and payment processors and these types of changes will continue as blockchain-based systems are tested in every industry on earth.

Blockchain will make new forms of business and organizations possible, allowing humans and machines to organize in ways and at a scale unseen before. Entrepreneurs and early adopters will face frustrating challenges but may be rewarded for their understanding of the nuances of these developments and their effect on the world as we know it.

In these early days, we have yet to see a Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Ellison. It is possible the leaders of this evolution will not be named at all…

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