<story><title>The Blockchain Bubble Will Pop, What Next?</title><url>http://approximatelycorrect.com/2018/06/22/the-blockchain-bubble-will-pop-what-next/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>skewart</author><text>Here&amp;#x27;s the big reason I&amp;#x27;ve gotten skeptical about blockchain: it seems like very few people are excited about actually using it. Almost everyone talking about it is excited about getting rich from trading currencies or starting a blockchain-based company. And plenty of people are excited about a grand vision for how it might transform society one day, or how it might solve problems they think other people might have. But it seems like almost nobody is genuinely excited to use any blockchain product themselves purely because it does something useful or fun or cool, and with no monetary interest in the tech taking off.&lt;p&gt;This is all in stark contrast to the 90s internet boom when, sure, there were lots of speculators and lots of get-rich-quick dreamers, but there were also tons of random people genuinely excited about using the internet who never stood to make a dime from it.&lt;p&gt;A lot of the grand visions behind blockchain mania are indeed compelling, and I suspect something blockchain-ish will take off at some point in the future. But it will probably be a distant descendant of anything that exists today.&lt;p&gt;Am I wrong about this?  Are there blockchain-based products that have lots of users who are using them because they like using the product and not just because they&amp;#x27;re hoping to get rich off the hype?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tialaramex</author><text>The Internet in some sense starts with, at the very latest, the Treaty of Bern in 1874. Because the Internet is just the current physical incarnation of the Network.&lt;p&gt;(The Treaty of Bern says how to make physical letter post work internationally the way we&amp;#x27;re used to today, before that it was a colossal pain in the arse)&lt;p&gt;The Network is like the Word, it&amp;#x27;s fundamental to what we are, the precise implementation may change, but the idea is forever.&lt;p&gt;Automobiles, T-shirts, babies brought up almost exclusively by their immediate biological parents, cow milk as a normal human beverage, portraits, funerals, the novel - these are all &amp;quot;just&amp;quot; culture and might become unfashionable and go away over the longer term or in other contexts - they&amp;#x27;re not fundamental to what we are. But the Word and the Network are right at the centre of what we are, as people.&lt;p&gt;Blockchain is just a weird cultural blip. It&amp;#x27;s not even T-shirts, it&amp;#x27;s Pork Pie Hats. People keep trying to make it a thing, but it&amp;#x27;s not a thing.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Blockchain Bubble Will Pop, What Next?</title><url>http://approximatelycorrect.com/2018/06/22/the-blockchain-bubble-will-pop-what-next/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>skewart</author><text>Here&amp;#x27;s the big reason I&amp;#x27;ve gotten skeptical about blockchain: it seems like very few people are excited about actually using it. Almost everyone talking about it is excited about getting rich from trading currencies or starting a blockchain-based company. And plenty of people are excited about a grand vision for how it might transform society one day, or how it might solve problems they think other people might have. But it seems like almost nobody is genuinely excited to use any blockchain product themselves purely because it does something useful or fun or cool, and with no monetary interest in the tech taking off.&lt;p&gt;This is all in stark contrast to the 90s internet boom when, sure, there were lots of speculators and lots of get-rich-quick dreamers, but there were also tons of random people genuinely excited about using the internet who never stood to make a dime from it.&lt;p&gt;A lot of the grand visions behind blockchain mania are indeed compelling, and I suspect something blockchain-ish will take off at some point in the future. But it will probably be a distant descendant of anything that exists today.&lt;p&gt;Am I wrong about this?  Are there blockchain-based products that have lots of users who are using them because they like using the product and not just because they&amp;#x27;re hoping to get rich off the hype?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vinni2</author><text>I thought the blockchain technology had the potential to help financial sector. Not the virtual currency itself but there are a lot of agreements, transactions and settlements which are done in a untrustworthy environment which makes it slow and resulting in settlements [0]. I thought this is also the reason why it takes so long to transfer money from one bank to another. I thought these processes could benefit from blockchains and smart contracts. Basically speeding up the whole process not requiring the banks to trust anyone [1].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Payment_system&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Payment_system&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;cjel.law.columbia.edu&amp;#x2F;preliminary-reference&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;developing-blockchain-real-time-clearing-and-settlement-in-the-eu-u-s-and-globally-2&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;cjel.law.columbia.edu&amp;#x2F;preliminary-reference&amp;#x2F;2016&amp;#x2F;deve...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>