At the beginning there was … code, and people saw that the code was good. So they have decided to mine… As most of you probably know by now, then came the first buy (thanks Laszlo), mt. gox, silk road, the first to “ze moon”, altcoin revolution, blockchain 2.0…. You name it, but a few.
As we can see, each “crypto decade” can be divided into rounds of hype. Though, to be honest, the hype doesn’t build itself up from scratch. It arises. Following the technological progress, the industry is making.
If we tried to map this out, we would get a very rough picture of the so called - “technological layers”, that easily fit on top of each other. The most common of those, were: bitcoin itself, or as many call it “blockchain 1.0”. Then, came all those “alts” back in 2012 - 2014, when one would spend up to 10 hours a day, just searching at what new fork came out on the “ANN” of bitcointalk. Then we had “blockchain 2.0” or smart contracts, that came along with Etherium (although one can argue that BTS did pave a way for those). In any case, that started the ICO wave eventually, and has recently came to what is called - “blockchain 3.0”, or the time of the protocols. If someone were to ask me, I would most definitely add 2.5 - DAPP’s and 3.5, the craze for Atomic swaps.
If we lay it on top of each other we would see some some kind of a technological pyramid being formed. That is: the core code (BTC), bitcoin development (developing the core code, making new brands), smart contracts (a technological breakthrough in the code), ICO’s and DAPP’s (development of services rather then the core, meaning stagnation is nearing without a new technological breakthrough), the protocols (and here is the second breakthrough), and the atomic swaps (once again, we are back to services).
Now, what does all of this shows us and where is it taking us to?
Well, I personally believe that it is rather obvious that we are simply repeating any technological progress of most technological eras in the history of mankind. The layers are fitted nicely onto each other, showing us that we are moving further and further, rather than standing on one single spot.
It goes to show that decentralization is in full motion. We started with a 9 page long document (let’s take the starting point as something where there was a working implementation in place) and we came to a progress, where people are ready to build different governance rules on top of a bunch of protocols that are out there right now.
What would be the next logical step? For me, this is rather obvious. I see the next logical step, as what I call: “full decentralization”, or rather a step towards it (obioculy this will depend on mass adoption, which there is not even a point talking about at this stage as there is no complete infrastructure for it). That step requires us to go back a little…
At the beginning there was code… And that code seemed like the correct thing for a bunch of us out there. That code and the set of (if one may use that word here) “rules” that came with it, seemed just like the right thing in order to build apps, protocols, fork it and so on and so forth…
But just as with religion (and don’t get me wrong, I do not want to talk about religion, but the essence of our behaviour as human beings, requires us to choose things we belief in \ fight for \ stick to etc), there are not one but many. Each, not only has its followers, but builds on top of it. There is no single way to do or to make anything out there (talking globally right now). Almost all things out there from ways to govern people, to code, to philosophical schools - are always existing in plural, each with its own set of rules. Each, has something build on top of itself with a set of guide and rules. Although, unfortunately for the most of us, most of those processes are completely centralized and we are not always able to change the rules to the way we would like to see them.
Back to the blockchain. For me, the next logical step is a new set of “rules”, on top of which there will be a new layer of forks, ico’s, protocols and so on. Not everyone out there agrees with the set out guides to the current implementation of the blockchain, that means that one can build on top of it, but still has to stick to some basic guides, that were set back in 2008\9 (and later on developed, but I am talking about the essence).
That means that we will see (and there are such projects already in existence), not one CMC with 1600+ projects, full of shitcoins, protocols and so on. But a number of those. That means, that each one, will have its own “bitcoin”, its own “etherium: and so on. That doesn’t mean, that the current implementation will not develop further on. It will. But, this is true decentralization at its best. Each human is free to pick his own “guides” and if others believe in it, they will follow his footsteps. Start developing, coding, trading etc.
In the next few paragraphs I will go onto giving an example of such a project in existence already. This is by no means, a financial, or any other kind of advice. One must make his own decisions. Any decisions based on this article cannot be accounted for any responsibility from my side. Those are only my thoughts on how this industry will develop in the future.
I believe that “aeternity” is exactly the project I am describing above, the new BTC with a new set of rules. That, once again, doesn’t mean it will replace the old BTC. Not at all…. It will start a new “page”, a new “CMC”. A new way, for new protocols, different to ETH, EOS and so on.
You would ask why… Well, that is because it has a completely new approach to how one should view the blockchain paradigm. The use of state channels allows for privacy, unlimited transactions and most importantly (to prove the theory above), it will NOT accept DAPP’s that will not support state channels (architecture). That in itself already, means that this paves the way for a new bunch of protocols and applications. It introduces a new approach to receiving information. With the decentralized oracles system, that can be compared to a decentralized API architecture. Once again, a completely different approach. And finally the cuckoo cycle. That will allow for a totally different level of decentralized mining. For example: a mobile phone could become a node.
All of the above, is just to say that the “new kids on the block” have a totally different set of rules. A lot of the people who are the “true bitcoin followers” might not agree with this… and you know what? That’s perfect. That means. that as I said above, true decentralization is taking place right before our own eyes. With one group (countries, people, companies, projects) set to go with the first paradigm and the others with the new.
But who is to say that Aeternity is the perfect solution to all of the questions? Well, no one! It means that there will be others. For example FOAM (although not completely a new paradigm - but also different), a paradigm that relies on clock synchronization and physical anchor location. Well, it can actually be used in any of the above after a slight alteration, but that is just to show that there are, and that there will be, many and much more than we can think of right now, ways to set out, the “blockchain paradigm rules”.
That means, that someone will follow “this”, and the other will follow “that”. That means, that eventually we will see not one, not two, but 10 \ 20 \ 100 “coin market caps”, each one representing their own “coins”, with their own protocols, “bitcoins” and so on. And once again, this is real decentralization. If we are to say that the paradigm is set out of words like “no control, global, decentralized” etc. Then we should allow others to pick their own guides and allow others to build on top of those.
Eventually, I believe, there will be some kind of a governance layer, totally independent and monetization free (I hope), that will interconnect each “guide” with the other. Just like cardano or blocknet are trying to do for the existing set of blockchain protocols.
… And on the last day God created the blockchain and it was good…