Nice article, but it makes a fundamental error. It conflates the blockchain with digital currency. Blockchain is merely a clever, but not revolutionary, use of the hash function to prevent changes in a very simple database. The use of cryptology is basic but effective. It has a very low adoption rate.
There are all sorts of digital currencies which have been widely adopted and are in common use every day. They are called bank accounts and they use highly advanced cryptology and cybersecurity to secure them in situ and in transit.
All digital currencies are traded against each other at market exchange rates (i.e. $ vs. Euros) and ultimately against goods, like houses and groceries.
The basic argument is that somehow currencies based on blockchain technology are better than other digital currencies. It can’t be because of technology as the blockchain struggles to process just a few transactions. It can’t be for security. While the redundancy of the database itself may be secure in the blockchain, the infrastructure, cyber and physical security is laughable regarding wallets, exchanges, key storage, etc. I could go on…
The only supposed difference is that the database is physically distributed and verified by its participating nodes. So is the banking system and believe me, if the accounts in banks around the world don’t balance by the penny every night there is hell to pay.
Well, so it goes, currencies on the blockchain are “trustless”. They don’t have to trust anyone institution to verify the balances. If someone makes an error, there is no one to trust to correct it. If there is a fraud, there is no one you can trust to take the case. If there is a bug in the software (No! that doesn’t happen!) there is no one to trust to set it right. If there is a bubble, or a crash or a market distortion, there is no one to trust to smooth it out or regulate it.
You can trust the major institutions to deal with these issues. Blockchain-based digital currencies are, I guess, just …… trustless. The 5-year-olds first should be first taught about what a currency is and only then how to evaluate them.
