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I apologize. I see. It feels "blockchain" and immediately thinks "schemas full of annoying shadows" or "fake Internet magic bubble" or "libertarian" enfants terribles"And when a true believer tries to explain why you should worry, because he will change the world beyond simply coining a new set of paper oligarchs, think" wait, why do not you just use a database? ". I hear you.
And you're not wrong. In the developed world, at least, there is not much that Bitcoin can do and that it is not already managed better, and more securely, by banks and credit cards. The vast majority of other cryptocurrencies are essentially penny stocks in an unregulated global stock market, with the exception of those that are basically luck games in a global casino, and those that are Bitcoin except in reality secret and anonymous, which are technically extraordinary but not necessarily inspire greater confidence in the general applicability of the whole concept.
Ethereum is more interesting, you could reluctantly grant, with all its concept of "world computer", execute code and store data on what is essentially a virtual machine without decentralized authorization dispersed in thousands of nodes around the world – but nobody use except to host the aforementioned stock market / casino, plus perhaps the occasional CryptoFad memetic, and even if people wanted to use it, they could not, because they did not scale.
Everything (currently) true. And let me hasten to point out that I am not saying that the blockchain will conquer the world. I support my position to be the new Linux, not the new Internet. I think it is optimistic to project that they will be used directly by more than half of the population, those driven by technology or politics rather than by practicality and ease of use.
But I think the existence of that alternative will be very important, because the traditional Internet, traditional Internet and especially traditional social media are poisoned by two original sins.
The first is an advertising medium. This is pretty creepy in itself: it leads directly to user tracking, browser fingerprints, ad retargeting, clickbait farms like Outbrain / Taboola, ads that block mobile browsers or obscure the content you wanted to see, autoplay interstitial that make TV commercials look discreet, and so on. But it is catastrophic for social media, because it encourages a growing involvement, which in turn encourages the generation of outrages, false news, demonization "from the other side" whoever it is, etc. – because these things lead to greater involvement, which leads to more advertising revenue. Whatever social media executives may say, the black hole of more money, higher profits, hitting their goals and getting their bonuses will continue to pull them towards them, inexorably, as long as their business model is driven by advertising .
The second is the simple fact that, unless you are planning against this from the beginning, technology tends to centralize power, courtesy of Metcalfe's Law and other effects of the winner-takes more. Which inevitably leads to the situation where a Facebook bug (an unforgivable but honest mistake) compromises the accounts of 50 million people, and in many cases their Tinder and Spotify and any other third-party account, also … because Facebook has grown to become a centralized power of identity on the Internet. And what can these people do? What alternatives can they pass? If they are very upset and very resolute, them could being able to switch to … others, equally centralized, identity providers funded similarly to advertising. But do not count on it.
That's why the simple existence a decentralized and unauthorized alternative, not financed by advertising, not governed by any central titanic society, is important. And, my friends, I know you do not want to hear it, but it's becoming very difficult to imagine a decentralized network with a new financing model that does not involve blockchain in a way, in a form or a form. This does not mean that we will all have to keep a sort of "wallet" full of private keys and manage blockchain nodes on our phones and laptops. Some of the most interesting decentralization initiatives, in particular Blockstack, use blockchain in such a subtle way that you will hardly notice. But they are still vital to them.
So please, exceed your instinctive repugnance. Look beyond the manipulated markets and the crazy casino. Accept that the fringe that first accepts and supports a genuinely new idea tends to be disproportionately insane, especially if the idea refers to money … but that does not mean that the idea itself is inherently just as well. There's something more interesting than the fake money and resourceful schemes that are going on here, and while I think it's unlikely to ever win the mainstream, I think there's a real alternative from a technical, political, financial and socially interesting movement born, behind all the sturm und drang and laughable scams. Look carefully. Think again.
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