Simple Answers to Four Questions From Blockchain Skeptics
April 26, 2021 @ 12:30 pm By Lee Schneider
When you work in the blockchain and cryptoasset space for a while, you hear four particular questions asked over and over by people new to the space and particularly by skeptical people. These are good and important questions and they deserve simple, straightforward answers, so let’s get to it.
What problem does it solve?
This question is sometimes asked as a challenge and sometimes an attempt to understand why it is useful. In either case, blockchain is useful because it solves the problem of
digital integrity. It may not be the only solution to that problem but it is becoming the most widely adopted one.
The Under-Appreciated Significance of Coinbase Going Public
Once the
Coinbase registration statement becomes effective and Coinbase shares trade publicly, a sea change will have occurred in the US without most people recognizing it. Part of that unacknowledged difference will be the broader awareness of blockchain and cryptoasset trading it brings. It is both novel and important to have a public company dedicated to the emerging technology and the markets it creates. It is cool that Coinbase founders, employees, and early investors will get rewarded for seeing the future before the rest of the world. No doubt the event augers well for other blockchain and cryptoasset companies going public. Oh, and Coinbase is doing it by direct listing, rather than an old-fashioned underwritten offering or new-fangled SPAC.
GameStop and DeFi: Let’s Not Be So Quick To Judge
Fellow DeFi adherents, let’s slow down on the outrage about
GameStop (NYSE:GME) and the traditional finance system (TradFi).
Blockchain and DeFi offer lots of advantages over TradFi, but TradFi is not completely broken and DeFi is not necessarily vastly superior. Two core characteristics make them look very similar in a way that undercuts the criticism and negative judgments against TradFi.
First, DeFi and TradFi both require
collateralization, they just implement it in different ways.
Second, just like collateralization can break down in TradFi, DeFi has a significant exploit that lessens the effectiveness of the collateralization requirement.