How opportunists and snake oil salesmen are selling blockchain’s future short

A rant about the current state of blockchain and cryptocurrencies

October 27

The big stories today are hardly worth sharing. As you read on, you’ll understand why we’ve decided not to name names. Our in-house blockchain expert, Dieter Shirley, had a lot more to say about this; so today, The Midas Guide brings you something a little different.

I’m straying from the path today.

The brief for contributing to the Midas Guide* is to find a piece of news, summarize it for the newsletter, and then put it in the context of the larger arc of where blockchain technology is taking society.

But today, I’m throwing my hands up in disgust and refusing. Because today ALL the news — even the news that shouldn’t — makes me feel dirty and I just don’t want any part of it.

Let’s be clear, I believe, truly and deeply, that blockchain technology will reshape our world the way all the greatest technological breakthroughs have reshaped our world: railway, telephone, and the internet are worthy examples. Of course, this transition will be disruptive (and I mean disruptive in all senses of the word: in the trendy, Silicon-valley way; the Clay Christensen, inevitable displacement of incumbents way, but also in the pre-internet dictionary definition way: to disturb, to interfere with, to unsettle.)

But I just don’t want to think of myself as part of what’s happening in the blockchain space right now, with money-grubbing ICO after money-grubbing ICO marching through the news (not a single one of which has actually delivered a product, by the way!), the petty infighting exemplified by Tezos and Segwit2x, and, frankly, the sheer tonnage of absolute bullshit from accidental millionaires and opportunistic grifters.

I’m not going to stop trying to build cool stuff with blockchain. I’m fortunate enough to be working with a team that aims to build projects that don’t depend on the hype, even if they are buoyed by it. Of course, CyptoKitties will benefit from the current exuberance around cryptocurrencies, but it’ll be just as fun without it.

But today, I’m also not going to pretend that the blockchain space is dominated by garbage.

Now, excuse me while I go take a shower…

Written by Dieter Shirley