Why the blockchain vibe today is too 90s
I have come to wonder what I am missing out on? As, I have attended several blockchain conferences in the past couple of months, watching the crowd, I really started to wonder…Where is the revolution, what’s new? The more I get involved within the blockchain space in terms of communication, movements, and evolution, I feel I have seen this before. Is this movement really going to change the world as we know it today or is it just a technological increment? Are we pouring new wine in old wineskin or are we just scratching the surface of something fundamental? Let me share three observations to illustrate my point.
A new way of trade? ICO’s as a new way of investing and participating
What’s truly disruptive about the process of Initial Coin Offerings (ICO’s)? Surely it allows any start-up to raise funds from a crowd hence democratizing the access to funding. However, is it the lack of capital for start-ups that make this concept truly disruptive? Is setting up a sustainable ICO process so much more innovative than preparing for a group of venture capitalists? Is it so much more different than going through a Kickstarter campaign?
Also from an investor side, it is fair to say that the crowd does have access to a wide set of asset classes. Moreover, how does an ICO investment differ from any other asset investment? How do you distinguish the good from the bad ICO’s? You look at the nature of the project, it’s market potential, it’s people. You trade when you understand what it does. Of course, this is common sense. But it’s not any different from how we have any other asset investment in the past.
Cryptocurrency as an enabler for a decentralized economy
I am a true believer of the potential and the plausibility of a decentralized economy. Where blockchain technology will allow us to automate the broadcasting of trust over a global network. This automated trust will replace institutionalized trust, which is centralized, which will cut a lot of trusted parties (read: middlemen) out. This will make global trade and interaction seamless and decoupled from big corporations, institutions, and even governments.
However, if we look at the blockchain technology space today, we see that one of the most biggest companies is Coinbase. A central trading platform for crypto coins. It does a great job in creating an entry-level for crypto trading. But is it any different from any other online trading platform?
Crypto community as an enabler for decentralized federations
How does a start-up receive sufficient funds to build their product? By showing the world what they have got. This has always been like that. Also, today when watching start-ups pitching for their ICO’s or any other funding rounds you see them writing white papers, handing out goodies and delivering sales pitches. Moreover, my social media are saturated with blockchain entrepreneurs pushing their product with paid advertising. But how is this any different from an e.g. product launch of Tesla, an IPO of a dotcom company in the 90s or Ford presenting a new model in the 70s?
This blog post is far from a pun. It’s a critical reverie. Evolutionary biology has taught us that in nature a mutation, a change that fundamentally alters an organism, happens rarely. The latter is no different in society or in technology where fundamental disruption is a rare event. I truly believe that blockchain, being the last puzzle of the internet, can be the catalyst for a societal mutation. It could be that I am too impatient and it is just too early and premature to see the first real building foundation of a new way of working and living. However, going back to my reverie, I do see a lot of people involved that are recreating the structures they are despising. They are really pouring new wine in old wineskin. To create a mutation, we need a significant movement to persist the mutation. Hence, let’s ensure that this is just the tip of the iceberg and something that is common to a typical hype. However, we do need to dig deeper. Therefore, I do hope the real geeks are up to something. As a believer, we at 0smosis are going to invest the necessary time to take action in order to deeply understand this vision and foster the change ahead…
