Individual tokens and blockchains will fail and will evolve and new ones will be introduced. So the technology, specific applications, tokens, scenario, regulations and usage will change but it’s here to stay.
‘Cryptocurrency’ is used with many meanings but essentially its a new new asset class enabled through blockchain. It’s not going to be a replacement of fiat money but that doesn’t mean it’s failed.
You have to understand that blockchain is a distributed ledger / network and this / these networks are built on top of the internet. This is the internet 2.0 in terms of technology while social media was web 2.0 just in terms of social-economic application of the internet.
The advantages of this technology is really quite tremendous. Let’s take the biggest three and a top level view of what it means
Decentralized / shared control
Immutability / audit trail
Assets / exchanges
There is shared ownership of the data. That data can not be changed without leaving a trace. That means trust. As there is no individual ownership of data there is a collective ownership of data. That means more trust as well as opportunity to receive value. With smart contracts you have the added ability to self-govern. Through the fact that you can self govern there will be no need of trusted third parties. You will have the ability to create self governing organizations known as Decentralized autonomous organization - Wikipedia
This essentially threatens all manual interference of humans to the extent that can be defined by logic and does not need physical human skill. With AI and robotics, who the f*ck knows!
Call me a geek but you can’t deny that data is money in the information age. Data or information was always money but in the digital age it is just so much more easy to monetize.
So who are the real banks? The one sitting on piles of cash or piles or data. Both right. Now organizations, old and new, have an opportunity to create value in any industry and share and foster that value through it’s ecosystem.
In many ways it is another equalizer opportunity. That’s why people who feel they missed the bus with the internet are even more keen to participate in understanding and adopting blockchain.
Social-economic repercussions will include new ways of managing, owning, running organizations and conducting transactions. It’s not as dramatic as a whole new world and it’s not happening overnight but over years through a initial few killer apps then much more widespread you will begin to see significant changes.
Fintech is the fat elephant of intermediaries being attacked. There are and will be so many more, foreseeably to every industry in some form or another. There are challenges to it’s current limits but as with anything else, it’s being worked on will improve, and there are always limits to everything and it won’t be used in every single scenario.
You only need to google “blockchain applications in x industry” and you will find a dozen for each. These are potential applications i.e opportunities. Do you think humans are entrepreneurial? Do you think it’s just going to be be forgotten the things what this technology can enable? It is already shaking the largest organizations in the world in terms of exploring, adapting, benefiting from it in and it’s here to stay.
Are you beginning to feel the huge undercurrent?
The best thing you can do is educate yourself. You don’t need to be an expert and only understand the basics because to even someone like me who is no expert, questioning if cryptocurrencies is ever going to fail is like asking if websites are ever going to fail?