More and more we are hearing promises and vision statements from Blockchain and more particularly Bitcoin people including Jack Mallers, CEO Strike. These promises centre on the notion that Blockchain offers safety from government and regulation which is held out as inherently bad.
Then Bitcoin proponents hold out the apparent safety of a digital currency that permits frictionless money movement with no risk.
And lets make sure we are using the same language and nomenclature. I quit Wikipedia at the foot.
A false promise
These promises are false and remind me of the 1992 – 1995 period when internet was held out as the solution to everything and in fact the benefits of Blockchain and Bitcoin are almost word for word the same. I know that because I was part of those making the promise that internet in banking would bring:
- free movement of money
- complete self service and control
- paperless transactions
- one click access to everything
And the implicit promise of
- freedom from regulation
- freedom from marketing messaging and control
- protection of ones privacy
In fact the internet promise in retrospect was as misplaced as the Blockchain / Bitcoin promise is today. For a microcosm of that misplaced promise just ask a salaried consumer working in El Salvador.
The false promise
The Blockchain / Bitcoin promise will offer somethings but lets not characterise it as any kind of web x.xx. Rather it is a set of tools that will offer multiple solutions, multiple failures and look nothing like what we see or think today.
The anecdotes are everywhere but what better to file away than the Kazakhstan situation. That country went all in on Blockchain data centres and when power consumption hit 10%+ has to turn them off.
This will need a lot more discussion and analysis but when you see reference to Web 3.0 or Web3 just make sure it is clear what is being discussed and who is the author.
Wikipedia definitions
- Semantic Web, often called Web 3.0
- Web3 (also confusingly sometimes referred to as Web 3.0) is a general idea for a decentralized Internet based on public blockchains.
Bankwatch 