"Blockchain Asset" Versus "Cryptocurrency"

[AlanWatts33]

The state of crypto is changing, and in my opinion, for the better. Some may not see it on the outside, but on the inside its very apparent. The space it seems, has developed into two different branches.

One I will call a blockchain asset. These are projects that are building innovative technology to optimize business operations. They can be for existing businesses or new ones never thought of before. This also includes Government operations.

A cryptocurrency is built to simply store and exchange value(just like any other currency). When we look at the specific motive of cryptocurrencies, we see its produced by the idea of disruption. Especially in the banking, government, and business sector.

This isn't to say blockchain assets do not have plans to disrupt certain industries. But in a broad sense, they are a way to improve on existing ecosystems. While simple currencies just want to start a new age, bring in a new era of economy/finance, etc. It's quite hard to not recognize in the crypto-space, how many "partnerships" we are seeing. Or simply a company that mentions they will invest in blockchain, or even create their own currency/blockchain. If it were not for incentive to the crypto-projects(price increase), we would never even hear about these things.

Think about these announcements of partnerships as potential "leaks". Not in a specific sense, for example; IOTA partners with Microsoft does not mean you should start buying the fuck out of IOTA. Vechain and Waltonchain partnering with the Chinese Government, etc. Think about these partnerships in a general sense. Business and government NEED to get their foot in the door on blockchain assets. And that is what we are and will continue to see in 2018 - "The Year of Blockchain Assets".

Notice how quickly the first and second industrial revolution has taken place. So many huge leaps in technology in such a short amount of time. Now look at how long it takes for the world to switch over or adopt different currencies. Yeah, thats just not as likely to happen quickly. We are surely entering the third industrial revolution- artificial intelligence, internet of things and decentralization.

One thing you may wonder- "Yeah but these blockchain assets still have those fucking coins/tokens, its all just a ponzi scheme." True, MOST of them do use tokens to incentivize use of the network and verification for not just decentralization, but immutability and security. Look at IBM blockchain, they dont use tokens(from what I can see). How the hell, are they going to pay for all those servers to verify the ledger? And how the hell can we know it is decentralized. Yes I'm sure there is a solution and a way to make it happen, or else IBM wouldnt even attempt, but you bet your ass that an asset with a token to incentivize an ARMY of computers will develop a lot quicker. Maybe IBM has a way of paying out FIAT to those who secure the network. Get ready for that FOMO.

Big business is very hesitant to accept cryptocurrencies, and it will remain this way for quite a while. It is just purely investment/gambling to them. Which brings up another point. We are seeing massive hyper-inflation in the US financial market. As we can see from the subtle leaks, major corporations will be integrating blockchain assets to hedge against the inflation. We are hanging on the edge of a paradigm shift in the financial industry. Will a new currency be born from blockchain/hashgraph tech? Yes of course it will, but in the meantime, we will go through a huge advancement in most ecosystems we use daily. FIAT ain't going nowhere for the time being.

So when you invest, remember to DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. Corporate universe is gonna be investing alongside. But will it be with a blockchain asset, or a cryptocurrency. I think its clear they will be going the route of adopting blockchain assets in 2018(the eary stage) and beyond.

 

[klen76]

I disagree on the token side being a ponzi. It might require a fundamental shift as to how we value things(this is Brock Pierce's agenda. Good or bad, i don't know, but worth taking a look at).
Currently the companies are being valued at how much profit they make and there are 3 parties(shareholders, company and the customers) and the interests among those parties are not aligned. With a token model, the interests are aligned. If you are a "customer" it means you own the token and you will tell your friends about it because it is in your best interest as you will profit off of it, you might contribute to the code, to the community and so on.

It's a different way of valuing things.

I like the idea, because capitalism seems to be the best concept we've had so far but it's flawed as in, the point is to make money. The CEO wants to make moeny, the founders want to make money so the goal of the company is to accumulate profits into the hands of the few at the top and it might not be in the best interest of the customers.

The new form of capitalism? Network capitalism if you wish to call it so Exciting times. Will be intresting to see how these things play out.

 

[klen76]

Edit though; most tokens right now though are just straight out moneygrabs/scams

 

[AlanWatts33]

Edit though; most tokens right now though are just straight out moneygrabs/scams

Very good analysis, thanks for that. I agree capitalism with some regulation, and democracy mixed is really the only viable thing that has worked. But like you said, its not about improving systems anymore, its about profit for the ones in control. Very sad but true. Networking capitalism sounds like the next step to help perfect the democratic side of things. The world is terribly controlled by those who have power and money so its very imbalanced, but hopefully we will all get an equal vote one day. Thanks for the replies.

And yeah coins are not generally ponzis, but there are quite a few of them out their, money grabs if you will. I just know for a fact that currency itself will go through ups and downs dramatically for quite a while, while these blockchain assets can really only go up in value. The year of the utility token.

 

[jazzc]

While the tech itself is very exciting (it was a solution to a really hard distributed computing problem), so far the only killer application has been its use for coins. So we'll have to wait and see if any other huge application will emerge - not that it has to.

 

[AlanWatts33]

While the tech itself is very exciting (it was a solution to a really hard distributed computing problem), so far the only killer application has been its use for coins. So we'll have to wait and see if any other huge application will emerge - not that it has to.

Good to see another person open to the possibility at least. I can confirm that in the very near future(2-3 months), multiple large companies will be using a combination of blockchain and RFID for some applications including - agriculture, apparel, medicine, smart cities, food industry and arts and culture. No you arent in the twilight zone, you arent being fooled by some moonboy lambo cryptofan. These are real developments that have been tested and will improve current ecosystems. I won't say the name of the company, but yes, they are a blockchain company that is different than all the other ones, since they will be able hedge their value and in turn, their marketcap, with full boat, hardware solutions to other businesses.

 

[mindmaster]

I agree with you and I share your opinion that crypto is changing for the better.

Until the future unvailes itself, I am glad to see good projects emerging (like POWR).

 

[AlanWatts33]

I agree with you and I share your opinion that crypto is changing for the better.

Until the future unvailes itself, I am glad to see good projects emerging (like POWR).

Exactly, as other reputable people have said here, time will tell. I know it will be soon, which is awesome we don't have to wait that long to see things unfold. You never know what can happen in a year, I just hope we see good positive vibes and research around crypto from here on out. Sort of like the internet, people always had their conspiracy theories(some of them were right, but we adopted the WEB anyway) but eventually everyone tried different things out and learned it improved many things in the world. I do think financially the lower and middle class has to take back some power fairly soon, or the big bust cycle coming will be even larger than we can imagine. And I think blockchain tech can help with our inevitable recession that is upcoming. Projects like POWR, WPR, KWH, will no doubt provide relief if their developments are timed correctly.

 

[healzer]

Well said OP.
Blockchain is much bigger than people realize, Bitcoins and altcoins are just a tiny fraction of what's to come.
One of my favorite applications of blockchain is in physical trade. I first read about this over a year ago, and it looks like the company "Maersk" has made good progress by teaming up with IBM: https://www.maersk.com/press/press-release-archive/maersk-and-ibm-to-form-joint-venture

 

[mindmaster]

Exactly, as other reputable people have said here, time will tell. I know it will be soon, which is awesome we don't have to wait that long to see things unfold. You never know what can happen in a year, I just hope we see good positive vibes and research around crypto from here on out. Sort of like the internet, people always had their conspiracy theories(some of them were right, but we adopted the WEB anyway) but eventually everyone tried different things out and learned it improved many things in the world. I do think financially the lower and middle class has to take back some power fairly soon, or the big bust cycle coming will be even larger than we can imagine. And I think blockchain tech can help with our inevitable recession that is upcoming. Projects like POWR, WPR, KWH, will no doubt provide relief if their developments are timed correctly.

A bit afraid that not many low-middle class will take back some financial power.
Will see.

 

[bmanfacts]

Making me believe you are the real Allan Watts himself lol.

Thank you for making this post. These are level headed discussions we need to be having (respectably) alongside valuation of cryptos.

Profits do matter. Many people, who don't have the good fortune to be patient, need something to look forward to if they're putting their money in. Undeniable. And that alone is why we should talk about that sometimes.

However, we gotta zoom out sometimes too. There's fantastic things going on. We're at a point where gov't can't deny that blockchain, and crypto innovation will go away. We've been Fudded with that for the past 5-6 months. There are things that aren't profit driven, but rather innovation driven. Just like silicon valley over the past 12 years.

This has been the period where those who were hardcore limewire users, those familiar with peer-to-peer systems are coming out to play like the tech nerds in SF. Devs run the show in a decentralized environment and I'm very interested to see how that plays out. We haven't even seen the beginning of that.

I'll keep my coin shills outta here though lol Great post OP

 

[AlanWatts33]

Making me believe you are the real Allan Watts himself lol.

Thank you for making this post. These are level headed discussions we need to be having (respectably) alongside valuation of cryptos.

Profits do matter. Many people, who don't have the good fortune to be patient, need something to look forward to if they're putting their money in. Undeniable. And that alone is why we should talk about that sometimes.

However, we gotta zoom out sometimes too. There's fantastic things going on. We're at a point where gov't can't deny that blockchain, and crypto innovation will go away. We've been Fudded with that for the past 5-6 months. There are things that aren't profit driven, but rather innovation driven. Just like silicon valley over the past 12 years.

This has been the period where those who were hardcore limewire users, those familiar with peer-to-peer systems are coming out to play like the tech nerds in SF. Devs run the show in a decentralized environment and I'm very interested to see how that plays out. We haven't even seen the beginning of that.

I'll keep my coin shills outta here though lol Great post OP

Appreciate it. I haven't even got rich off of crypto yet, but I want to spread the knowledge around like wildfire. Of course its about the money, but its also about the law of attraction in some sense. See the world you want to exist. I KNOW these technologies can help advance harmony in civilization. Will it? Thats another thing. Just like all science, it comes down to motive, to feelings, sadly. Will we use this tech for the greater good? Or maybe because of the nature of the beast,(decentralization) will it even be possible for mistakes or human error?

To expand further, IBM is partnered with shipping companies and are using something called hyperledger fabric platform. The transactions are verified by the users/companies themselves. The participants are the validations on the network. As you can imagine, this still isn't truly decentralized. But it is a great leak for us to see now while its early. Leaving shilling out of this thread, but there are very large blockchain assets which will dominate this industry(M2M communication, supply chain, IOT dapps, etc).

So I think a big part of the overall discussion in crypto will be for a while: "whats the need for all these coins." There is a great argument for them being needed. Complete immutable ledger and full fledged security of course, speed, incentive for adoption, lots of things. Although there is already projects in the works, which could basically destroy the coin system, because they have infinite speed, and free transactions. So there could also be in the future, a very good argument for why we never really need these coins/stores of value, even as utilities. For now, coins are vital, as we are pretty far away from a seamless "hashgraph+dual scaling chain" blockchain that is safe and efficient to use.

 

[klen76]

Companies will probably be using private chains for management of their data... I mean there is no reason for this data to be public. It's just a database among many nodes with consensus algorithm to agree on the state of the ledger.

Public blockchains are ledgers of credit and debit and for this the token is needed.

Not everything needs a token and a blockchain. It's just all the hype around blockchain so everyone will try to get a share of the pie during this gold rush.
Also a lot of misconception and what so not.... who cares though, let's go to the moon first

 

[bartosimpsonio]

Has anyone here tried to sync a full Ethereum node? It used to take days to sync, now it takes weeks.

I don't know where the blockchain is going but surely there must be improvements for it to become a truly worldwide distributed computer.

 

[Account Olaf]

This is what makes scaling so hard and why it has become the #1 challenge in crypto today.

 

[healzer]

This is what makes scaling so hard and why it has become the #1 challenge in crypto today.

Aren't there some new ICOs that are much more scalable than ETH?
I forgot their name(s) but they have much simpler cryptographic functions (less CPU intensive), but still remain quite secure to some degree.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe almost all of these nodes/miners are using software to generate/sign hashes. The performance could be drastically improved by using/developing hardware specifically designed for a specific hashing algorithm -- but to make this a reality one needs to partner up with a company like Intel/AMD/IBM/Texas Instruments/etc.

 

[A Jason]

It's a make or break situation for many of these cryptos, it's a race against time who can develop the first real product on the blockchain/DAG. The developers know this very well and when the first batch of real products/cryptos are complete we will see them cement their price and suck the life out of vaporware projects. These are extremely exciting, volatile times, and we should all feel grateful to play a part in this revolution.

As far as I know, quite a lot of hedge fund asset managers are ready to move into crypto, with many of them moving their entire positions into Ethereum. However, right now there is a slight reluctance and they will accumulate slowly since quite a large percent of holdings is held by unknown early young investors. This puts major organisations and financial institutions at a risk, knowing that early bitcoin adopters hold large amounts of Ethereum (and had the foresight to hide there holdings) and thus banks are spending massive amounts doing analysis and research to find out who these people are and how much they hold.

I'm going to link you to a World Economic Forum extensive report done by huge titans (CEOs, CTOs, Presidents, Managing Directors) of multi billion dollar institutions, it's definitely worth the read if you're interested in the future of cryptocurrencies: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_future__of_financial_services.pdf

 

[Account Olaf]

Aren't there some new ICOs that are much more scalable than ETH?
I forgot their name(s) but they have much simpler cryptographic functions (less CPU intensive), but still remain quite secure to some degree.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe almost all of these nodes/miners are using software to generate/sign hashes. The performance could be drastically improved by using/developing hardware specifically designed for a specific hashing algorithm -- but to make this a reality one needs to partner up with a company like Intel/AMD/IBM/Texas Instruments/etc.

Everyone is trying to solve the scaling issue and in various ways. Some of the proposed solutions are on chain and some of them are L2 solutions, which are external and built on top of the blockchain. BTC has lightning network which is currently in trial and is an L2 solution. ETH has several proposed solutions, one of which is sharding, which is meant to add to the main blockchain a lot of smaller, "local" blockchains, like a hierarchical tree of blockchains. Others are trying to develop brand new solutions, such as EOS. Another approach, such as Graft, for instance, involves hybrid blockchains, with multiple consensus approaches, such as hybrid Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake.

The first one to crack this in a secure, reliable way and with a good UX, could go on to dominate crypto. Currently, my money is on Lightining Network - I think in the long-run it will allow BTC to hold onto its dominant position.

 

[klen76]

As far as I know, quite a lot of hedge fund asset managers are ready to move into crypto, with many of them moving their entire positions into Ethereum. However, right now there is a slight reluctance and they will accumulate slowly since quite a large percent of holdings is held by unknown early young investors. This puts major organisations and financial institutions at a risk, knowing that early bitcoin adopters hold large amounts of Ethereum (and had the foresight to hide there holdings) and thus banks are spending massive amounts doing analysis and research to find out who these people are and how much they hold.

Intresting. "As far as i know" just curious what's the source of this knowledge?

Are there no concerns on the Ethereum hitting it's limits? Cryptokitties make Ethereum blockchain useless and competition is coming(EOS, NEO). Or are scaling solutions behind the corner?

 

[AlanWatts33]

Companies will probably be using private chains for management of their data... I mean there is no reason for this data to be public. It's just a database among many nodes with consensus algorithm to agree on the state of the ledger.

Public blockchains are ledgers of credit and debit and for this the token is needed.

Not everything needs a token and a blockchain. It's just all the hype around blockchain so everyone will try to get a share of the pie during this gold rush.
Also a lot of misconception and what so not.... who cares though, let's go to the moon first

As much as I understand your sentiment, you are missing the fact that blockchain has progressed. One specific chain is able for the administrator to pick what data they want public and what they want private. Not only that but they are integrating oracles to be able to sell that data discreetly and safely off-chain to other businesses who need it.

And again, there are good arguments for needing coins or not needing coins integrated with the ledger.

But yeah sure, lets get to the moon and then pluto before anything.