The Future: Millions Of Blockchains With Tens Of Millions Of Apps
There is a mindset out there that believes we are going to see a single cryptocurrency and blockchain dominate the future. Many feel that Bitcoin is going to be Internet money thus becoming the default unit that everyone uses. This is often called Bitcoin maximalism yet is not relegated to just Bitcoin.
We also see blockchain maximalism which promotes the idea that "this blockchain is the best". We see this with EOS, Ethereum, Cardano, and Tron. It is also present on Hive and Steem.
This also fosters the idea of competition. For those who were reared in a monetary system based upon scarcity, which we all were, this is natural. Anything new is obviously a threat since there are only limited resources. Therefore, if something else succeeds, it must be at the expense of where is already there.
How many times over the years did we hear about the "Steemit Killer" (which often meant Steem)? I cannot recall the number of applications that popped up where people were discussing the pros and cons of the "competition".
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Money is an interesting subject that few know about. Obviously, many in cryptocurrency understand it a great deal more than the general public but, even still, miss the point of value. For some reason, we seem to think it is inherent as opposed to a social construct.
Let us look at the example of a knife versus gold. Historically, gold has been a store of value. However, what purpose would gold serve if you and a couple others were on a deserted island? The utility would make it almost meaningless. A knife on the other hand, would carry great value since it has vital uses.
The same is true in the Mojave desert. What do you think would have more value, a gold bar or a gallon of water?
Throughout human history, we used all kinds of items a "money". Anything that is agreed upon by a group of people will serve the purpose. The reason for this is due to the fact that money is a social construct. If we agree to use it, then it is so.
Here is where we find cryptocurrency really driving this lesson home. A blockchain is database. However, when people form around that database, we see a network or community form. In this instance, an agreement is reached among the participants of what will serve as money. Thus, the value of the cryptocurrency tied to that network is established based upon the userbase.
Over time, as the network grows, we see the value increase. Instead of scarcity, we are looking at a system that is based upon utility. The more use cases for the currency, the more it grows.
The idea of online community really drives home what we are seeing evolve before our eyes.
How many different communities are there online? This is a question that is impossible to answer. There are hundreds of millions, if not billions, in existence. Some are rather large while others only have a few members. A site like Reddit is certainly a community yet it is broken down even further. There are hundreds of thousands of subreddits, each of which can be viewed as its own community.
Naturally, some are very small with only a couple of individuals involved. Nevertheless, they are filled with people from all over the world who gather together around a particular interest.
Now let me ask: how many interests does the average person have? Each of this is a potential community (or network) to belong to.
And, of course, through the development of cryptocurrency, these can be monetized.
Innovation is ever present. There is always someone around with a new idea. In an open source world, this means an ever growing ecosystem of new projects.
This means, over time, we are going to see the number of blockchains explode. With open source software, people are continually creating new things. How many versions of Linux are there? Right now there are hundreds, if not a thousand, different versions created.
We all know the major blockchains but how many sidechains are there? A blockchain like Steem, which most overlook, probably has 10 different forks over the years into new chains. EOS is forking all over the place. We know Bitcoin went through a series of forks resulting in half a dozen chains.
When we look at the digital world, how many databases are there currently? What is the limit to how many humanity can have?
The future is one where we are going to see the idea of cooperatives replacing much of our existing system. We see this is real estate. To show the potential, we can look at how they can be formed. If we want to get absurd, each house could be its own cooperative. While not very practical, it is possible. We then can set them up with two houses per cooperative. This is a bit more useful but still not ideal.
As we advance up the line, we can see how there will be many cooperatives of varying sizes. Some might have only a dozen or so homes while others get into the hundreds. The sizes will be determined by the needs and resources available.
Now here is a big question: do adjacent cooperatives compete against each other? How often do we see neighboring housing communities "competing" with each other?
This is a vital concept to the online world because, unlike our physical example where one is relegated to one particular housing community, we can be involved in hundreds online. We are free to interact with whatever community we desire as long as we have something of value to add.
It all takes on a different meaning when a community is large enough to form a viable economy. For example, let us cite a game like Splinterlands. If this game got popular enough, a decent sized economy would form. Let us say there are ten million users. Under this scenario, all kinds of shops would pop up around the game offering all kinds of different products and services tied it. Here we see how those involved would not care about Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any of the other thousands of tokens. Within the ecosystem, the currency would be those assets tied to the game. Thus, anyone catering to that crowd would accept what is readily available (DEC for example).
Certainly, a game that reached a level of success such as this would be of great benefit to a blockchain like Hive. It also would be of value to the entire crypto-sphere in general. Thus, we see how success can affect things on many different levels, adding value along the way.
Would this make Ethereum less valuable? Bitcoin? Or any of the thousands of cryptocurrencies out there? Of course not. It is not a zero sum game.
Once we enter the digital world, we see how abundance is readily available. As we progress further, we are going to see more digitized meaning that there will be applications for just about everything. Unlike the present system, the idea of cooperatives is going to push the wealth distribution further out. This means that more people will be sharing in what they generate.
If this is something that is difficult to see at this point, just picture what is already present with 10x the number of people involved. What does that look like? If that is not enough, imagine it with a 100x.
Can you see how this is starting to develop?
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Posted Using LeoFinance
