When Ralph Merkle invented the eponymous Merkle Tree data structure and patented it in 1979, it was an innovation that didn’t really go anywhere for a long time. When the non-entity “Satoshi Nakamoto” repurposed it for his crypto-currency, what he innovated was not “blockchain”. That had been around in various forms since Merkle. It was the creation of a scheme to permit transactions to be done using a Proof-of-Work security scheme to assure that there was little or no chance for double-spending or spoofing transactions.

Crypto currencies exploded starting about 5 years ago. About 99% are now worth nothing. Even the perfectly named: Shitcoin. Truly the sign of an amazing revolution.

But, Bitcoin and maybe a couple others will continue survive and thrive because the first use case is still the only one: SilkRoad. The demand for easy and safe money laundering, child porn, fentanyl, cocaine, meth, arms, blood diamonds/ore, sex/human trafficking, ransomware, extortion proceeds, mistress payments, bribes, etc. … is fucking huge and getting bigger. As a result, the second “use case” is investing in these by buying and selling crypto is available.

The biggest revolution of “Blockchain” is like crack: it makes you feel smarter and more capable than you are and enables you to do absolutely shit-bad things.