Should-Read: Kai Stinchcombe: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

Should-Read: The Winklevii’s line is that BitCoin disrupts gold: that BitCoin is currently undervalued by a factor of two if only one-fifth of the world’s gold bugs decide that it is appropriate to move half of their hoard into gold. And since the goldbugs of the world ain’t too tightly wrapped, it could happen. That it could happen is why there has not been a crash yet. But his is nuts—there is still no compelling use for a blockchain, ingenious as it is, and no compelling reason why BitCoin would be the and they only blockchain in whatever blockchain future might emerge: Kai Stinchcombe: Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain: “For the person paying for a product, the key feature of a new payment system…

…think of PayPal in its early days—is the confidence that if the goods aren’t as described you’ll get your money back. And for the person accepting payment, basically the key feature is that their customer has it, and is willing to use it. Add in points, credit lines, and a free checked bag on any United flight and you have something that consumers choose and merchants accept. Nobody actually wants to pay with bitcoin, which is why it hasn’t taken off. Plus, it’s not actually that good a payment system — Visa can handle sixty thousand transactions per second, while Bitcoin historically taps out at seven… for those seven transactions a second Bitcoin is already estimated to use 35 times as much energy as Visa…