louh
8/23/2015 - 3:30 AM

A wonderful paragraph generalizable to "technology for X"

A wonderful paragraph generalizable to "technology for X"

https://blog.ethereum.org/2015/04/13/visions-part-1-the-value-of-blockchain-technology/
Hence, there is substantial hope for a future that can be, to a substantial degree, more decentralized; however, the days of easy gains are over. Now is the time for a much harder, and longer, slog of looking into the real world, and seeing how the technologies that we have built can actually benefit the world. During this stage, we will likely discover that at some point we will hit an inflection point, where most instances of “blockchain for X” will be made not by blockchain enthusiasts looking for something useful to do, coming upon X, and trying to do it, but rather by X enthusiasts who look at blockchains and realize that they are a fairly useful tool for doing some part of X. Whether X is internet of things, financial infrastructure for the developing world, bottom-up social, cultural and economic institutions, better data aggregation and protection for healthcare, or simply controversial charities and uncensorable marketplaces. In the latter two cases, the inflection point has likely already hit; many of the original crowd of blockchain enthusiasts became blockchain enthusiasts because of the politics. Once it hits in the other cases, however, then we will truly know that it has gone mainstream, and that the largest humanitarian gains are soon to come.