Both Bitcoin and its Blockchain are proof-of-concept quality at best. They have profound importance to history but little practical viability, despite the present mania surrounding them. They will eventually both be replaced by much more robust solutions that eliminate the serious shortcomings of Blockchain’s reliance on miners to validate transactions and the proof-of-work architecture that serves only to slow down the network and make it painfully inefficient and wasteful of electricity and other resources.
Will Leemon Baird’s HashGraph be the next big advancement in this field, or will it be a soon forgotten relic after someone comes along and finds fatal flaws in Baird’s math? I have no idea. But I’m confident that regardless of whether Leemon Baird has already invented a DLP that doesn’t need Bitcoin Blockchain’s miners and proof-of-work architecture, someone somewhere will invent one, sooner or later. And that won’t be the last advancement in this nascent field.
If I were able to prescribe an improvement for this whole process, it would be this: The crypto community needs to stop treating the Wright Flyer (Bitcoin/Blockchain) as if it were the holy grail, and instead refocus on moving ahead with the much more important task of advancing the field toward the eventual introduction of the Boeing 727. The prototype has already served its purpose. We need to standardize around a DLP that doesn’t depend on miners or Proof-of- Work, and which can operate with or without an associated cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin’s Blockchain was the Wright Flyer of DLPs, and it’s a pity that the Bitcoin crowd has yet to recognize just how seriously flawed its design truly is. If they could see the picture clearly, they would realize that Bitcoin is a flash-in-the-pan cryptocurrency that belongs in a museum.
Don’t get me wrong – digital currencies are definitely going to be the thing of the future. But like it or not, issuance of legal tender has always been the province of government. The only reason Bitcoin has been allowed to come as far as it has is because governments are notoriously slow and inefficient, and are only just now beginning to realize how seriously cryptocurrencies threaten to undermine the power of central banks.
Bitcoin and the other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies will be forgotten soon after the emergence of a viable digital currency based on a more robust, scalable DLP. It remains to be seen what technology will emerge as the preeminent de-facto gold standard of DLPs. HashGraph is but one of many contenders. But sooner or later, someone will figure out how to build a digital currency that doesn’t suffer the serious limitations and drawbacks of Bitcoin’s deeply flawed blockchain architecture.
One things’s sure: We live in interesting times, and this whole thing has just barely begun. DLP (not cryptocurrency) is the most important innovation here, and its potential is unlimited. Digital currencies will also be very important, but unfortunately, their future is likely to be determined more by actions of government than advances in technology.
