Here are the qualities that I think are special about this model: (1) the platform is organic; (2) critical mass kicks in pretty quickly. Organic: it would be

Here are the qualities that I think are special about this model: (1) the platform is organic; (2) critical mass kicks in pretty quickly. Organic: it would be unrealistic to attempt to solve the wine problem as a one-off registry. But once the infrastructure exists, it becomes trivial to solve the wine problem. You point out that many of the individual scenarios could be solved by a conventional registry. This is good criticism, thanks. Maybe the role of the chain is not to be a log of everything, but rather to be a system of governance. Participating registries need to be onboarded to the chain, and need to abide by the rules to stay onboarded. Governance consists of humans (proof-of-stake parties) who serve as regulators and magistrates for participating registries. They ensure that the APIs are in good order, and have the ability to excommunicate systems that are not playing by the system. In this model, the chain serves the same role as a nation state, but it does not have land. The artwork problem is still useful, though, because it is a problem that allows you to bootstrap the platform. Analogy: Amazon was initially about books, but Amazon was never really about books.