The Potential of Blockchain Technology

What is DeFi all about? Modernizing, disintermediating (banks etc.), reducing layers of fees in the middle. Transparency. This is a big misconception. People think it's opaque and used for criminal activity. Everything in blockchains is open...

'-If you look at a lot of the issues people have with social networks, I would argue a lot of it comes from a mismatch between the nature of these networks and the legacy corporate structures that govern them.

-What is the main limitation today? Performance. A blockchain computer inherently takes a hit on performance, because the design is foundationally based on the idea of not trusting a single computer. You need to pay for the overhead of running all these computers

-This is similar to the modern model of video games with microtransactions

-Compound, for example, is a lending protocol built on ETH with $10b+ of crypto available for borrowing. The creators could go away tomorrow and the code will still run.

-BTC worked well as store of value in the sense that there's more and more people that accept it as such. Data supports that it is being used in countries with unstable currencies

-Who would have imagined Uber or TikTok in 08? Many innovations that will be around in blockchain in 10 years likely weren't even discussed on the pod and may not have surfaced yet

A very hard unsolved problem, in fact, is how to make it private. The idea of using it for money laundering is absurd. It's the worst way to do it. Everything is public and exposed.

-Has not lived up to expectations as a pmt mechanism. Fees and vol are obstacles

For example, BTC's value is enabled its scarcity. This scarcity is ensured through the code and design of BTC itself. There isn't a central party that can change the rules on users and take the supply beyond 21m coins.