An in-depth look at the potential of decentralized blockchain tech that aims to fix some of the internet's fundamental structural problems
Yes, it's driven by greed — but the mania for cryptocurrency could wind up building something much more important than wealth.
New York TimesSteven Johnson
Context & Ripple Effects
This Times piece takes an argument that had lived in tech-adjacent corners since Backchannel asked how Bitcoin's blockchain could power an alternate internet in 2015 and puts it in front of a general audience at the height of the crypto mania. The claim is deliberately double-edged: speculation is the funding mechanism, and the durable output may be protocol-level fixes to how the web stores data and routes trust rather than any token's price.
First-order effects
The mania channels capital and talent to the decentralized-app builders the coverage names — Graphite Docs, Blockstack, OpenBazaar, Storj, DTube — letting them fund infrastructure that no advertising-model incumbent would underwrite.
Second-order effects
Skeptics sharpen their counterattack: Kai Stinchcombe's argument that systems built on trust and institutions outperform trustless ones forces the movement to defend its core premise, while TechCrunch's advice tells blockchain startups to stop promising a decentralized Facebook and ship small viable applications instead.
Third-order effects
If the 1999-style bubble analogy holds, a crash prunes the speculators but leaves behind the protocol layer the way the dot-com bust left the web's plumbing — with the unresolved question being whether trustless designs or trust-and-institution systems win the structural argument.
The trend: Cryptocurrency speculation is functioning as venture funding for rebuilding the internet's foundations, with the eventual test being whether trustless protocols can displace institution-based platforms.
In the @NYTmag, my new #longread arguing that the blockchain world is simultaneously filled with charlatans and scammers *and* constitutes the only viable hope we have right now of fixing the Internet's structural problems. http://www.nytimes.com/...
A smart, fascinating piece by @stevenbjohnson about how the blockchain could help fix what sucks about the internet these days. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Yes, it's driven by greed — but Bitcoin mania could wind up building something much more important than wealth. It could return the internet to a more decentralized and egalitarian system. http://www.nytimes.com/...
Fantastic writing by @stevenbjohnson explaining how blockchain could remake the internet. Ignore the bubble. Deep, well-reasoned, reported, insightful, easy to read. http://www.nytimes.com/...
Love this smart, crisp read—great explanation on not just the sizzle of crypto but the meaty, tricky heart of blockchain and why a decentralized future might be more necessary than ever before http://twitter.com/...