Crypto vs. Blockchain: A Tale of Two Adoptions

True Story: Once upon a time, a mysterious person wrote a document that gave the world a never-before seen technology that would change everything: how everyone did business, how everyone used money, and the age old concepts of ’trust’ and ‘ownership.’ The world took this new technology, and everything has been golden ever since.

Ok, so obviously it’s not entirely that simple or dramatic. The year was 2008 and the mysterious person called themself Satoshi Nakamoto. The result of Satoshi’s Bitcoin whitepaper was two fold; it unleashed cryptocurrency on the world, along with the base technology that made cryptocurrencies function — blockchain. If crypto captured hearts, it was blockchain that captured minds; terms like ‘revolutionary,’ ‘unstoppable,’ and the incessant phrase “so much potential” drowned out online forums and tech summits. Yet, 12 years later, it is cryptocurrency that has taken off (sort of), while blockchain, outside of these cryptocurrency applications of course, languishes, struggling for mass adoption.

So what happened? Why has blockchain struggled when it has so much real value to offer, while crypto, with its checkered past, succeeds?

To understand why blockchain has had such a hard time selling itself, despite its very clear and real benefits, one has to look at the evolution of the technology…