The Magic is Wearing Out?
About one year ago I was very excited with how the local authorities in Luxembourg were reacting to the nascent wave of blockchain disruption. I predicted that business, once they realized the implications, would start assembling defensive mechanismes. But I thought the political class would know better
I'm not so sure anymore. A series of rather distressing signals tend to indicate a certain fatigue.
"Blockchain" sounded fun while it was an abstract concept that people talked about but nobody had seen or touched.
Under the impulse of the Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg launched a public-private partnership called Infrachain. A lot of actors of the private sector joined, alongside the CTIE (Centre des Technologies de l'Information de l'Etat, the state IT services agency). The oversight was given to the Digital Policy Adviser, Anne-Catherine Ries, a lawyer by training (not a technologist).
The first worrying signal came in an interview the latter conceded to a local magazine. Talking about the blockchain she said: "Nous avons apprivoisé ce sujet en rassemblant tous les acteurs du sujet autour du projet Infrachain." - that would be "We have tamed this topic by bringing all the actors around the Infrachain project".
That threw me back ... The Prime Minister's Advisor on technology looks at emerging technologies as something to be "tamed", domesticated rather than ridden for all they are worth?
More distressing signals were to come. When existing organizations encounter blockchain they realize it's not "just another technology, only better". It's something that questions them and asks them to overhaul from the ground up their way of working. Something nobody feels confortable doing.
So we came to the rather ridiculous situation where the CTIE developed a blockchain PoC and deployed it on the infrastructure of the Infrachain consortium. Until they stopped and pulled out. Probably because they realized that Infrachain also included private entities and there was perhaps some internal rule of procedure that forbade CTIE software to be run on computers not controlled by CTIE ? Or something similarly impossible to square with the very idea of a blockchain solution.
Sliding on the downward slope
I suspected for a long time that the old world cannot really adapt and embrace the technology and change. It appears incapable of doing so. It needs to be upended, disrupted like the internet has been disrupting it for the past 25 years .
At the recent "ICT Spring" event the "pro-technology" speech of the Prime Minister (pictured above) was ringing hollow. Between speeches, random quotes were displayed on the giant screen.
"The fundamental value of Bitcoin is zero" by the famous Nouriel Roubini was one of them.
On the "technology hype cycle", blockchain has already entered the downward slope towards the "through of desillusionment"
It doesn't help that, besides Bitcoin, Ethereum and, more and more, Steem(it), the technology has struggled to enter mainstream. In terms of mass adoption, we haven't yet crossed the famous adoption "chasm"
I believe the value of Bitcoin is manifold but probably the most relevant is its ability to "unlock the entrance" in a new and completely different world. You cannot understand the value of Bitcoin if you refuse to see and acknowledge that new world.
Ethereum has popularized the notion of "Smart Contracts" and enabled the marvellous ICOs, a powerful disruptor of the VC industry.
More Ste(a/e)m!
Steem could very well be the next stop for the masses on the path toward technology adoption
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Adoption will not be easy for sure. Dough many people, like Roubini and Buffett hate Bitcoin, they talk about it. For first step it is enough. For any new tech adoption, there is opponents. Even Tesla, when invented AC which have changed the world,had many opponents that were promoting DC and some of them were very smart people like Thomas Edison...
Don't be discouraged, politicians will continue the double talk and attempt to "tame" the phenomenon, until it becomes clear (even to them) there is no turn back. It might take a while. The gap you showed (the chasm) is real, but it will be crossed, at some point. Steemit can be a powerful engine for crossing the chasm, because anyone can understand blogging or social media.
Absolutely, steemit is the blockchain application which is best, from what I 've seen, at helping people cross the chasm
No government is going to accept financial systems or any truth-based information storage that is not under their control. That will lead to loss of control and they are not very good at accepting that outcome.
The only way to make progress is to continue without government "help" and create replacements for the things in our world controlled by business and govt interests. Any time ANY government gets involved, their first "contribution" is to place controls and restrictions on the invention/process to ensure they can guide it along the "correct" path.
Expect nothing from politicians and you will not be disappointed later!
:-) Good advice
Politicians will be the last to adopt a technology which threatens their leverage. Really now 😂!
I'm not sure many of them understand that it threatens their leverage. For the moment they look at it and mostly see "oh, cool, new tech, that might mean more investment in the country which should help for reelection"
I do believe that Steem is well-placed for mass adoption. The newest development is that new SMTs on the Steem blockchain will be airdropped. With STEEM inflation slowing down this will mean the price of STEEM going up. Hold on to your STEEM, ladies and gentlemen. Steem the blockchain will not even choke like Ethereum when push comes to shove with large adoption and increasing use.
I never could really bring myself to trust the existing system. But I know that it is either this or chaos. To exist within it is more due to the lack of choice than anything else.
That doesn't mean that I wan't this system to be hurt or I am not thankful for it. I acknowledge it's many advantages and am thankful for it. In the end I want it to change for the better rather than abolished. For now we need an overhaul.
I am not so sure that waiting for these cronies to accept the change is going to be productive because they are sitting pretty on their heaps of wealth and power.
"The fundamental value of Bitcoin is zero" - somebody should tell this guy that fundamental value of all things is zero. That is until we humans decide to assign value to something.
Great post!
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