The Market for Promises

Blockchains are not simply about money. The modern-day alchemists who minted Bitcoin and other digital assets have animated a generation of technologists to reimagine how the financial and commercial world operates. The vision that these technologists aim to bring to fruition is not just about payment systems and other financial instruments. Large ... See more

Blockchains have value at their core. They are money networks, and as such, they make for more efficient financial systems. They cut out intermediaries, improving speed and cost. They are permissionless and global, so that essential tools to grow savings and make payments and transfers, are at the hands of anyone with an internet connection, anywhe... See more

Blockchain-based contraptions have a lot to offer the world that other kinds of systems do not. On the other hand, Nathan is completely correct to emphasize that blockchainized should not be equated with financialized. There is plenty of room for blockchain-based systems that do not look like money, and indeed we need more of them.

Blockchain is an immutable, digital ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a network; it is updated and shared across many computers in a network. 

In the last decade, blockchain technology and crypto have been laying the foundations for an alternative reality in which humans interact and organise themselves without the mediation of a third party. Crypto currencies are a US$2T asset today and billions of dollars are being traded globally without the need of a bank or intermediary, with transac... See more

The answer to the first question is that blockchain commoditizes investments by making everything ownable and investable. It creates an abundance of things that can be owned. It also creates an abundance of various resources by making them easier to share. Finally, it creates an abundance of human engagement – the ability to incentivize people to a... See more

It's important to understand why even the most grandiose promises are "investable" at this stage (if inadvisable under US securities law). Tokens are issued on a blockchain, which creates, at minimum, the conditions for exchange, ownership and participation, as well as more advanced rules like scarcity of supply, consensus, reward mechanisms, and f... See more