Well, Kai Stinchcombe, I can not begin to estimate the cognitive biases stuffing up this piece of well written, misinformed claptrap.
Declinism is the belief that a particular thing is in a state of significant and possibly irreversible decline. And you centrally suffer from this cognitive biases when it comes to Blockchain.
All things technical and worthwhile failed at first. From the cell phone next to you on your desk to the computer you used to craft this article, all have failed miserably at first. All had opponents that espoused the status quote as superior and foretold of the imminent disastrous end. Personal computers will never work in mainstream, and why would I ever want to replace my flip phone with a touchscreen?
And they, like you were wrong.
The internet started out as 350 baud streaming from a modem that made funny sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckc6XSSh52w
It was slow at first with detractors complaining that we just could not do much, this internet thing will never work in the mainstream because it is just to slow.
And they, like you were wrong.
As it turns out if you were going to build a database in 1984 it would look a lot like SQL or Oracle. If you were going to build a database in 2018, it would be different.
And if you were going to build a business in 2018, it would look nothing like the centralized business we built in the 80's.
As far as for use cases Banks, yes I said banks, have been using blockchain and distributed leger for intrabank transfers for years now.
An as far a Smart Contracts, for a wide range of potential applications, blockchain-based smart contracts offer some benefits many of which are currently coming online. Smart Contracts execute transactions 1,000 times quicker and 100 times cheaper than their fiat based counterparts. Because smart contracts use software code to automate tasks that are typically accomplished through manual means, they can increase the speed of a wide variety of business processes. Automated transactions are not only faster but less prone to manual error. The decentralized process of execution virtually eliminates the risk of manipulation, nonperformance, or errors, since execution is managed automatically by the network rather than an individual party.
Because smart contracts provide a low-cost way of ensuring that the transactions are reliably performed as agreed upon, they will enable new kinds of businesses, from peer-to-peer renewable energy trading to automated access to vehicles and storage units.
As businesses become more and more dependent on global supply chains for goods and services, the freight and logistics industry will pay a much more critical role. Currently, the industry is controlled by freight brokers who help to facilitate transactions of loads from shippers to carriers by adding a markup. Due to this, the costs of the carriers and of the downstream prices to the customers tend to increase. The traditional supply chains have relied on physical movement of large volumes of paper documents which may result in huge challenges in efficiency, tracking and theft. Very often, supply chains are hampered by paper-based systems reliant on trading parties and banks around the world physically transferring documents which can take weeks for a single transaction.
This and more is happening right now as we speak. 3rd and 4th quarter 2018 will see many of these new organizations begin to take hold in many industries.
The author says he is — Whatever the opposite of a futurist is. Which is cute, and comfortable with the risk adverse, but it also means that when something changes he is wrong.
