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Web != packet switched network. But, if you want to go that far, the first cryptographic hash functions were being designed in the late 1970s, so cryptocurrenc

by Vendan 8y ago

Web != packet switched network. But, if you want to go that far, the first cryptographic hash functions were being designed in the late 1970s, so cryptocurrency has a decade or so to go before it'll be "late" by that standard, and it's progress so far has been lackluster compared to the internet's as of 40 years after it's "packet switching network ancestry".

api 8y ago
The web is an application. PSNs are a fundamental innovation. A fundamental innovation is a conceptual leap that brings about a qualitative (not quantitative) jump in capability. Before it something is simply impossible. After it that thing is possible. The fundamental innovation was the development of the very first practical decentralized network that can achieve secure reliable consensus among minimally trusted peers. Bitcoin's way is not very efficient and may not be the only way to do it, but it proves that it's possible and shows one way it can be done. It generally takes an absolute minimum of twenty to thirty years for something to go from lab bench prototype to mass adoption, and that's fast. 50 is more typical. Bitcoin was a lab bench prototype. But what about the bubble? Cryptocurrency is indeed in a bubble, but it's a bubble built on radically underestimating the amount of time (and work) it will take to go from proof of concept to mass adoption. As the saying goes people tend to over-estimate progress in the near term and under-estimate it over longer spans of time. The cryptocurrency bubble is also not very big. The numbers are huge from the perspective of an individual or a small company but from the perspective of the global economy it's the equivalent of taking a piss in the ocean. If you look at the global financial industry as the target market, cryptocurrency collectively hasn't scratched the surface. Far more money than the entire cryptocurrency valuation crosses the Atlantic and Pacific in the form of conventional wire transfers every day.

by Vendan 8y ago

api 8y ago

The web is an application. PSNs are a fundamental innovation. A fundamental innovation is a conceptual leap that brings about a qualitative (not quantitative) jump in capability. Before it something is simply impossible. After it that thing is possible. The fundamental innovation was the development of the very first practical decentralized network that can achieve secure reliable consensus among minimally trusted peers. Bitcoin's way is not very efficient and may not be the only way to do it, but it proves that it's possible and shows one way it can be done. It generally takes an absolute minimum of twenty to thirty years for something to go from lab bench prototype to mass adoption, and that's fast. 50 is more typical. Bitcoin was a lab bench prototype. But what about the bubble? Cryptocurrency is indeed in a bubble, but it's a bubble built on radically underestimating the amount of time (and work) it will take to go from proof of concept to mass adoption. As the saying goes people tend to over-estimate progress in the near term and under-estimate it over longer spans of time. The cryptocurrency bubble is also not very big. The numbers are huge from the perspective of an individual or a small company but from the perspective of the global economy it's the equivalent of taking a piss in the ocean. If you look at the global financial industry as the target market, cryptocurrency collectively hasn't scratched the surface. Far more money than the entire cryptocurrency valuation crosses the Atlantic and Pacific in the form of conventional wire transfers every day.