Blockchain Projects Are Just Entering the Netscape Phase

The digital asset ecosystem needs to evaluate its progress against the historical diffusion of innovation.

Jill writes about how we are collectively evaluating digital assets and makes a determination that: "I think perhaps we have been judging cryptocurrencies' success according to a false metric. We would not judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree."

Most blockchain technology appearing now started as academic theory 20 or 30 years ago.

Jill says digital assets don't provide "Marginal improvements" on legacy financial services and systems and that "Often blockchain-based systems will fail when compared to more conventional, centralized solutions." However, in my opinion, there are companies and projects in the works that address problems in the financial system.

To paraphrase Marc Andreessen, I believe we just entering the Netscape phase of digital assets.

While banks take up to three days and charge between 4-6% for international money transfers, Wyre completes transactions in less than six hours, charging less than 1%.One of the more important developments in 2019 was the mainnet launch of Cosmos, an interoperable blockchain protocol that began work five years ago.

Substrate's modular architecture abstracts away as much blockchain development as possible, freeing teams to focus on crafting their project's unique business logic.

People who claim "Nothing has happened yet," or that digital assets and blockchains only have limited use cases such as breaking laws or social contracts, only see patches of the quilt.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies.

CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.