Why I’m bullish about Blockchain and you should be too
Blockchain is a new technology that can change the behaviors of people, revolutionize how modern apps are built and give some sort of power to a common person. But people are skeptical about its practicality.
As I explore this space, I encounter more and more articles that say why blockchain would fail. There is an opinion flying around for developers saying that you should not waste your time learning technologies based on Web3.
However, I firmly believe in this technology and encourage more and more people to get in early and understand the technology to harvest its benefits. I’ll give you the reasons why I’m jumping into it and let you decide your stance.
Before you read
This is an article that received 60k claps and I urge you to give it a read.
This article answered some of the arguments laid out in the former article. It’s a nice short read.
I’m not arguing about the specifics here. These include — blockchain is harmful to the environment, it’s not truly decentralized, it’s hackable, etc. They are dealt with in these and many other articles.
My job here is to motivate you to get started with this field. I think the technology is fairly new and has a lot of potential. I’m going to explain why I think that.
Why am I bullish?
An argument often we often hear is that blockchain has been around for so long (technically, since 1995) and yet it hasn’t been adopted. So does it really solve any problem for people?
If there were any pain points of the current system, won’t we be seeing a lot of applications of blockchain already? Why are most people still unaware of this technology? Let’s answer that.
A personal example
I had taken interest in computers when I was around 14 years old. It was because I get excited by new technologies and start to find out ways in which they can be applied to solve problems.
I learned many different things but not blockchain until now. Why?
Firstly, blockchain wasn’t popularized (or at least it didn’t reach me) before Bitcoin. Bitcoin gave a new idea that was widely adopted and finally, there was a solution that could potentially solve double-spending.
But even for Bitcoin, what I heard were news related to illegal activities, people gambling an imaginary currency, and other sorts of negative perceptions.
Secondly, blockchain applications require some additional steps such as setting up a wallet and signing transactions. This introduces a bit of a learning curve to it.
When was the last time your friend recommended you to try something that was hard to learn and you actually tried it?
Web2 was adopted because of its ease of use and its coherence with existing societal norms. Even with slow-speed connections, the word about easy-to-use apps got around and they were readily adopted.
Exponential growth can be achieved by word of mouth. That’s why there are referral systems in so many apps. And that’s why Web2 was readily adopted.
Thirdly, as mentioned before, the concept of blockchain introduces new social constructs. A layman finds hard to understand decentralization since centralized systems have been a part of our history.
Traditionally, we’ve been accustomed to middlemen who make unfair profits, large institutions that we have to trust, governments that are corrupt, centralized banks, etc. (not valid for all cases of course).
Web2 did nothing but move this offline system to computers. Nothing new to learn, just live the way you did, but now with the comfort of your home. Hence, easy adoption.
A new way of life
A new way of life is being introduced where no central authorities have a major power. This construct has at least some gravity to it and is worth our attention as it might unlock new possibilities.
Changing from monarchy, dictatorship, etc. to democracy was a new way of life. Traditional norms were broken and people were given power. Now, we can say that democracy is inherently the best form of government despite its flaws.
This shows that when such major changes happen, society will change with them. As time passes, we won’t be able to imagine our lives without them. We should welcome such changes.
There is no single person in existence who had a problem they wanted to solve, discovered that an available blockchain solution was the best way to solve it, and therefore became a blockchain enthusiast.
Taken from article by Kai Stinchcombe linked above.
Well, I’m that person. In a previous post, I talked exactly about how I was a critic before but became an enthusiast when I saw a problem that is best solved by blockchain. Now I find myself in a rabbit hole learning about smart contracts, Web3, NFTs, etc.
In summary, this is a new opportunity. If you’ve got the time and resources to learn, definitely devote some hours to it. You may or may not like it, but here are the incentives for trying and liking it.
Incentives to be bullish
When I talk about the blockchain, I don’t mean cryptocurrencies. I’m not really a fan of trading Bitcoin to make profits. I only care about the underlying technology.
Digital assets
Metaverse, NFTs, and other forms of businesses dealing with digital assets will need a blockchain to prove ownership. They can resort to old ways of storing data in their private database but it has some flaws.
To add a personal touch, I never buy weapon skins in my favorite game. That’s because I feel they have no value outside it. I can’t do anything if I get bored with the skin I have. If the game stops being supported by the company or a better game comes into the market, my money would go wasted.
I’d probably reconsider if the game offered these skins as digital assets. Now, they would be like any physical good that has value everywhere (provided people agree it does).
This brings us to the concept of money in our society. People often regard cryptocurrencies as gimmicky, imaginary currencies. The same people trust in dollars and gold which I find ironic.
In reality, nothing actually is of any value other than wheat, rice, etc. Dollars, gold, and other “valuable” items are useless for survival.
Two people agreeing that a dollar has value gives it value. It’s just a piece of paper that doesn’t have any inherent utility to it. Gold is just a shiny metal and you can’t even make equipment with it.
Now that I’ve explained how digital assets can be valuable, a centralized database doesn’t instill trust when storing them.
Drawing an analogy between the metaverse and real-life — Imagine you go to a mall to buy some clothes. The mall tells you that you can wear those clothes only there and other malls won’t accept your outfits. Doesn’t make sense?
That’s what centralized databases do too. If your avatar’s clothes are stored in the database of a particular metaverse, you can’t use them in other metaverses. But on the blockchain, theoretically, your assets can be used in any metaverse, any game, any digital endeavor that you become a part of.
A possible counter-argument here — But the centralized database can expose an API so we can use those data elsewhere. Well, would you like to build your entire business around trusting someone else to keep providing you their services?
It’s a business decision to make and you may prefer it. But some people may not like this idea when a decentralized solution is available.
In short, digital assets are best stored on the blockchain and as people engage with the digital world more, the need for blockchain grows.
Eliminating trust/Decentralization
I covered the core idea of this section in the previous section — you’re trusting third-party companies to keep offering you services when there’s no need of doing that.
A new possibility that is unlocked is the one pointed out in the second article I linked above. You can run the entire banking system on blockchain and all the procedures are transparent for you to see.
Thousands of employees aren’t needed for repetitive tasks that should be automated. The need for trusting the employees is voided too.
You can see all the companies operating now and tell at least some aspect of them that can be decentralized. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s more efficient that way but your imagination can run wild.
Opportunities
I’m a computer enthusiast. I love almost everything related to computers. Be it web development, machine learning, security — if there are 0s and 1s involved, I’d probably jump right in. I like to build stuff, get my hands dirty, learn by doing.
I keep exploring but nothing beats the satisfaction of making something that hasn’t been made before. Or building something that already exists but in a different and better way.
If you’re like me, Web 3 opens infinite doors for you. Whether you want a job or want to start your own venture, the problems you’re going to solve are going to be unique, unexplored and you’ll be the pioneer of that field.
If you’re particularly interested in starting up, you can see the new businesses that have replicated the Web 2 world and created value in Web 3. I’d argue that OpenSea is the Amazon of the Web 3 world. Infura, Polygon, etc are the AWS.
What I mean to say is, this space is offering you a chance to build something and make money on the way. You look at the web2 world and most of the ideas you get have already been built or have the best people working on them. In web3, nobody is that big of an expert. You can be the leader here.
Early entry benefit
The important factors that made Warren Buffet rich were that he learned investing at a very young age and he has been invested for a really long time.
In a fast-paced and always innovating world, change is inevitable. People who put in that extra effort at the right time (early) are rewarded with the greatest wealth.
Web 3 isn’t as early as you’d like it to be but it’s still not too late. Most of the people I know professionally are oblivious to this space. They don’t know how it works and are unwilling to cross that entry barrier by learning. They are not wrong in any way but they are letting an opportunity go.
Conclusion
As a developer, I look around and see an overcrowded market of NodeJS developers, React experts, etc. Being one of them myself, I wanted to choose a field where I can use my existing skills and get in early to create an impact that I might not be able to in the crowd.
Blockchain is here to stay, even if the cryptocurrencies and NFT prices are a bubble, the power of the technology can’t be dismissed.
I’m not shutting down the opportunities I see in Web 2. Web 2 isn’t going anywhere either, it’s not becoming obsolete. But I have hopped on to the wave of Web 3, not out of FOMO, but because I see the societal changes it brings and the problems it can solve. You should start this journey too!
Ready to get started? I’ll be sharing the resources I used in a future article. Follow to get notified!
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