Blockchain — is the Emperor naked?

Recently I read an article (which I sadly lost in the depths of internet) about decentralization as one of the next big things. I totally agree and not just because that’s what I am researching myself. But then this post had an interesting turn. It claimed that decentralization will generally be achieved by the use of blockchains. Wow.

This is not my primary field of expertise so I decided to do a bit of research. Now I understand that blockchains are nothing else than transactions that are written in stone. They are verified and guaranteed by an underlying blockchain technology like the popular BitCoin.

Some further research revealed two interesting aspects:

• Blockchains seem to be not fully decentralized but just replicated. I’m still not sure if there has to be a central controlling instance, at least out of convenience or for accounting.
• Global (!) transaction rate is rather slow currently.

Now what does that mean?

• Blockchains are logs or archives. Very secure ones indeed. So they are not meant to serve as live database replacements.
• Being a chain means they grow rather rapidly. I expect a transition to loosely replicated “block-trees” soon.
• Transactions are just recorded and processed later. That means a transaction filed with one node may take some time to show in another node.
• Nodes must not be overloaded. Some recommend to store just hashes. I doubt that this is a useful advice.
• Blockchain transactions have a cost. That’s the business model of blockchains. Usually related to document size.

There are obviously great use-cases for blockchains. They will save many trees’ lives and make a lot of things better researchable. And that is indeed a great new technology. In this special field. Unless I missed something important.

So, no, he is not naked. It’s just not an Emperor you’re staring at.