Blockchain is everywhere, but is the technology overhyped?
SPOILER ALERT: I am definitely not anti-technological advancement and I am not anti-blockchain, but my experience confirms the view of Bill Gates et al that we tend to overestimate the potential of change in the short term and underestimate its impact in the longer term.
I am sure that in 10-20 years time there will be many instances where the blockchain, smart contracts, NFTs, etc will be integral to better solutions and that in turn the worlds of finances, creative arts, and medicine, to name just a few, will have changed significantly. My issue today is with the dogmatic stance taken by a good number of people in relation to the current “hot tech”; a position that closes out challenges and stifles effective discussion.
Recently I have noticed a theme in some of my (professional?) conversations with them ending with me being told that I don’t “get it”. The “it” being crypto currency, NFTs, the metaverse, Defi (decentralised finance), etc.. I have been told it wasn’t my fault, e.g. that being “wired” for TradFi (traditional finance) was the reason I don’t get Defi!
This jarred with me as I believe I am extremely curious and not a Luddite. I have lived through, embraced, and in no small part driven significant change during my lifetime, professionally and personally. I also believe that I have the intellect to tackle pretty much anything I encounter. If I can deal with relativity, black holes, and space/time questions, there is no shortage of brainpower to be applied to these technical propositions.
So, I started looking into the situation more analytically and I found some common threads.
The bits I am told I don’t get are all underpinned by the desire for/promise of:
· The disintermediation/democratisation of processes/transactions
· A new(?) form of trust built on mathematics
· The immutability of digital records
Underpinning all…
