So I wanted to throw in a small dose of reality to balance things out a bit. I may sound cynical, but you get that when you have lived longer than twenty minutes and seen a few things unfold.
So let’s look at some of the claims / propositions being put forward in various places around the interwewb
Blockchains are forever – they are censorship resistant, what goes on the blockchain stays on the blockchain
A blockchain runs on a series of interconnected computers, just like a WAN (Wide Area Network). They all talk to each other and transfer data back and forth over the interweb. Your laptop, PC, Mac, phone, fridge, cyber-budgie all do that as well. Some do it more securely than others.
It is only a matter of time before someone crafts an exploit to bring down a blockchain, and there are many, many reasons to want to do so. To steal money, to deny money to others, to harm reputations, bring down a company (disgruntled employee syndrome) or to hold the blockchain to ransom.
Just because it hasn’t been done on a blockchain near you just yet, doesn’t mean it can’t happen. And it definitely doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Blockchains will bring freedom to the masses
This one always amuses me. The theory is that with all the transactions being out in the open it will bring freedom. Governments will run on blockchain technology and their citizens will have access to all levels of government and have real knowledge of what is going on.
While governments may adopt blockchain technology at some point, where it’s useful for them, they aren’t going to put everything on it. That would be silly. Anything they don’t want their political rivals to know, their enemies to know, their citizens to know, won’t go anywhere near a blockchain.
The average person on the street will have no greater access to the workings of government than they do now. Those who are interested in government, activists, lobbyists etc will always know more about how government works and what is going on within government. The rest of us are too busy just trying to survive to spend time exploring the blockhain to see what the politicians are up to now.
So in that regard, nothing changes except the means by which the lobbyists gather their intel.
Soon everyone will be using crypto and the old money will be useless
I live in a modern society, with a high use of electronic transactions for buying goods and services. Pretty much everyone uses an EFTPOS card to buy their groceries.
Until you step out of the cities.
I was at a petrol station last week in a small town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, and there was a lovely, quaint sign – Out of town cheques not accepted.
Who uses cheques in this day and age? And yet, it is enough of an issue that this petrol station felt it needed pay for a sign on its forecourt to tell customers that only people who live in the town can bring their chequebook.
The lesson here is that the old money, the old way of buying and selling, is not going away any time soon.
I’ve read the dread predictions of hyper-inflation and how the US economy would collapse and the zombie armies would be freed to rampage across the earth. But I’ve been in countries with hyper-inflation (like Zimbabwe) and there were no zombie armies. You could still buy stuff. A can of coke might cost $50,000 but you get paid $100,000,000, so it’s not as bad as the doom prophets would like you to think.
I still have some of that currency kicking around somewhere. Once I left the country I couldn’t even give it away. But inside the country it still worked and I could still buy what I needed.
Crypto is the future
I don’t think crypto is the future.
Crypto is the present. It is the start of an evolution.
What comes after crypto is the future.
There is a fight brewing for control of this space, and the current blockchains are not geared up for it. They are not built for battle. So many of them will fall. Some will struggle on, others will adapt and morph into something new.
The technology that comes out the other end will be very different from the technology of today. But it will be much more robust, faster and more widely accepted than the current crytpo could ever be.
Governments and banks can’t control crypto
And this is the one that is the most naive.
The banks and governments are in total control now. What makes you think they will simply roll over and give up that control? Who do you think will bring down the blockchains? They have the money, they have the power and they have the will and the need to bring down the blockchains.
If the blockchains are the key that sets the people free from the banks and the governments then it is imperative from their perspective to either control they key or destroy it forever.
Can a blockchain set up by a small startup survive against the might of governments and banks with very deep pockets and malicious intent? Remember, it doesn’t have to be all the blockchains that get hacked and destroyed, just a few of the smaller, weaker ones would be enough to see investors take their money and run back to the banks, taking their profits with them.
These targets would be sacrificed to bring fear and mistrust of crypto to the masse - at least crypto that is not controlled by the banks and governments.
And that is where we are heading – not into a brave new world where everyone is free of the banks strip mining the citizens for every last coin. But to a world where the banks now have more avenues to generate money, less costs, and more control. The only blockchains that will be allowed to flourish will be those that are owned and approved by the banks, all others will be slated as ‘money laundering for terrorist organisations’ and anyone participating in them will be deemed as helping the terrorists, or indeed of being a terrorist.
Well that’s a bit grim. So what do we do about it?
For myself I’m excited about crypto currencies and especially STEEM and Steemit. I like this. I like the possibilities it presents and the opportunities that can be taken to improve my life and the lives of others.
There are some very real success stories right here on Steemit. @papa-pepper is one of those. I’m super stoked that he has finally been able to buy land for his family so he can build them a house without having to deal with crippling debt. That’s just awesome, and it gives me hope that others can have similar success.
But for @papa-pepper, Steemit and STEEM are a means to an end. If he wasn’t on Steemit, he would be doing something else to make his dreams for his family come true.
So I think instead of looking at blockchains and crypto as the key to everything wonderful, and believing that it will change the world, step back a little from the hype and look at it for what it really is.
This is a new way of doing what you are already doing – making money to feed your family, to save for your dreams. It may not be here forever, so get in while the getting is good and work hard at making this work for you before it is all taken away.
Invest in your future, invest in your present. Be excited about crypto and enjoy the game of building your portfolio and seeing the ups and downs as the currencies battle it out for supremacy.
But don’t think that this technology will set you and the world free. You might earn enough to buy your freedom, but the rest of us will still need to go to work to feed our families and pay our bills. With any luck our crypto investments might buy us a nice holiday or a new car. It might make things a little easier to get by. But for most of us the status quo will remain unchanged. We might be paying our power bills in STEEM or Bitcoin instead of dollars, but we are still having to work nine to five to earn that currency, and we are still paying too high a price for food and services, and we are still living from paycheck to paycheck.
As a final note to this somewhat dreary post, I’d like to say that my intent is not to be depressing or to spoil your enjoyment of Steemit or blockchains etc. I love it here. But I do feel there needed to be a voice of caution to balance out the hype of unbridled hope and optimism. Blockchains are cool, but so is on-demand high-definition video. It hasn’t stopped people watching TV or going to the movies. Video streaming hasn’t altered the viewing reality for most people.
Be excited at the opportunities Steemit and crypto currencies affords you. Grab those opportunities with both hands and make them work for you. Become one of the free. So in ten years I can say –“ I knew him when he was a slave just like me. Lucky bugger made it out, and bloody good on him.”
Check out my stories here on Steemit
Running Deer
Running Deer - part 1
Running Deer - How legends are born
Charlie Rabbit
Meet Charlie Rabbit
Charlie tides up
Charlie Rabbit and Margery Mouse
Charlie Rabbit and Margery Mouse make music
Little Peppers Adventures
Runaway Rabbit and the hungry fox
Maybe and the land of purple rainbows – A Little Peppers adventure
How Pappa Pepper and Monster Truck the Pepper got their wild hogs - a Little Peppers Adeventure
Dark Angel Regiment of the Space Marines - Mission Files
First Squad Sniper Elite - Zaresith mission
Other stories
Also don't forget to check out my Dad's blog
Who else can tell you stories about impersonating an officer, stealing a military aircraft to go on a booze run, or steal military aircraft and go on an unsanctioned bombing run - and that's all before he turned 18!
Check out @len.george and find out what other madness he got up to!
Are you new to Steemit and trying to figure out what it's all about?
Head over to: https://www.steemithelp.net/. It's the best place to get a handle on what the platform is all about.