The world is constantly changing at a rapid pass. We are seeing, every day, a massive metamorphose in the tools and the means of how we do business.
Blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and ICO’s are gaining a lot of our interest, but there is a lot of hype over there. Part of what is happening is certainly real and appealing. However, almost every trendy technology has had its share of drama. The Dot-com and the Cleantech bubbles still in our short memories as a reminder.
Why should we keep track? and why we have to be cautious?
Be careful while the ship is heading towards the unknown. We will assist to the rise and fall of a lot of people out there. In every aspect of life, we get to keep track of what is going on to achieve things and to be fulfilled.
Utility is important!
You have to think deeply and to learn about the utility is providing the token and the network as a whole.
Does the utility seem to be rooted in the history? Does it represent a lasting need? what tools and technologies can break it? Even if the coin value drops, if the utility is real, it is going to survive and shine.
To illustrate my concern let me give you one example
Think of Neuromation coin, Neurotoken. Neuromation is basically a platform that will use distributed computing along with blockchain proof of work tokens in order to allow scientists and companies to build their AI models using the generated data by Neuromation and the computing power of the network.
What can happen?
Having in mind that the algorithm used for learning is basically a neural network. The latter use labelled data to learn. This type of algorithm is computationally expensive (this is why the miners can sell their computing power to scientists or companies through the Neuromation network). What if a new paradigm or a new type of algorithm get invented which requires less computational power and no data labelling (which means the generated data will not be needed). Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of neural networks, has his own take on his own algorithm. For more insights about this, you can read this medium post.
Where will be the utility of Neurotoken then?
These are my personal thoughts. I do not assume any truth in this analysis. However, there are some serious questions to be asked. If you have an answer to this question, I will be very pleased to read it and discuss with you.
Please share with me and with the community your thoughts, insights, concerns about what I have said in this blogpost, your own concerns and convictions. If I am mistaken somewhere, please correct me.
My last question is : can you think of 5 characteristics of Steem that will prevent it from losing its utility?