The False Promise Blockchains Will Revolutionize Real-World Assets

Such is the state of the blockchain promise today: It's a powerful tool, but probably not for what you think.

We've been told that blockchain technology will get rid of the need for trust in the world.

More specifically, blockchains reduce the need for trusted intermediaries for digitally-native assets that are born, live and potentially die exclusively on a blockchain.

Their existence and ownership is defined by entries on a blockchain which serve as the source of truth for these digitally-native assets.

Whatever the blockchain says is truth for these digital assets.

This is all part of the "Censorship resistance" property of blockchains that will supposedly eliminate trust in untrustworthy people or institutions.

Once again, if you need to trust a government to enforce your rights, then surely you should be able to trust them to run a database? On the topic of hard forks, what happens to physical property that is represented on a blockchain when a hard fork occurs? There are now two tokens on two separate chains representing a single property in the real world.

Land registries are just one example of the false promise that blockchain technology will revolutionize industries based in the physical world.

We live in a physical world and when digital tokens that represent physical assets are issued on a blockchain, there is a need to verify that these digital tokens are in fact backed by the physical assets they claim to represent.

Let's hope it's not much longer before the world understands what problems a blockchain solves and which ones it doesn't.