A new voice joins the “start with the problem, not with the protocol” chorus:
As exciting as it may be, Bitcoin and the Blockchain are *not* the answer to everything, at least not initially. And not all Bitcoin companies will be successful.
–William Mougayar, 07 Feb 2015
This is a database technology. It is not a liberation tool. It is not a (money)-printing press. It is a database… there may very well be social consequences, for good or ill, which arise as a result of the proliferation of this kind of database. We cannot predict what those are in advance.
–Yours truly, 22 December 2014
On any objective measure, to date the tech’s accomplishments fall far short of the hype.
–Yours truly, 14 August 2014
To suggest that decentralised computing will be threatened by the existence and evolution of multiple protocols is absurd – it’s like saying that ARPANET was threatened by the development of the many functions of the Internet. Which ultimately it was.
–Yours truly, 7 May 2014
Bitcoin itself is just a tool. It would be akin to saying that all databases and accounting ledgers should conform to Republican ideals or Democrat ideals or Socialist ideals. Databases are tools, Bitcoin is a tool. The code is open-sourced and will likely be adopted and used in numerous environments and circumstances that could very well be, non-ideological (e.g., backoffice for financial institutions, medical records for hospitals & HMOs, property title tracking in developing countries).
–Tim Swanson, 10 March 2014
It is a mathematical task to append the digitized dollars or digitized euros or Yuans with metadata that would assure their network flow to their proper destination, frustrating fraud and abuse.
Now that is a durable, powerful, effective vision, and a good use of our modern technology.
Gideon Samid, 18 November 2013
It is at best a speculative asset class resembling an investment in a high-risk technology stock and at worst an economically useless commodity. If not that, a money laundering scheme for the shadowy underground digital economy… It’s also arguably flagged a genuine deficiency in our existing current e-money infrastructure.
Hence why serious attempts should now be made to improve the universal payments system on a digital level. (Emphasis added)
–Izabella Kaminska, calling it before just about everyone else on 15 April 2013
I would also point you to the sage words of Schumpeterian economic philosopher Carlota Perez.
