Garden of Eden Revisted

The allegory of the Garden of Eden applied to blockchain, cryptocurrency and crypto in a second instalment with Ulf Wiger and Dimitar Ivanov in the conversation in addition to Craig Everett and Greg Chew from the first discussion.

The metaphor of the Garden of Eden is used to illustrate how shortcuts in blockchain projects and sacrificing broad, long term economic gain for narrow short term gain leads to the failure of blockchain to achieve its breakthrough potential.

Many blockchain projects have taken shortcuts by focusing on being the blockchain operator rather than solving fundamental problems. The industry has lost its heart and soul and has hoodwinked people with language like 'layer two' and 'layer zero' which are nothing more than re-centralising services, casting blockchains to be so called 'layer 1's'.

Gateways that address the failed, fractured state of blockchain not only re-institute the need to trust, they also do so in a way that recreates the same bottlenecks and control - bridges, batching, custody. This would not be so bad if they did so well (they don't) and were regulated to carry out the hitherto regulated trust activities - payment rails, custody.

As a consequence, moving assets between blockchains safely without gatekeepers is currently a challenge in the fragmented blockchain space - this is deliberate and a function of the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist approach which tries to create monopolies by massively funding loss making entities until the barrier to entry is so great that they not only control the industry, but also the price of services therein.

The silicon valley approach is corporatism at work and denies the key capitalist tool - market signals. As a financial markets trader, a key day zero lesson is that the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain liquid. Whilst a command economy removes market signals in favour of diktat, the contrived Silicon Valley Venture Capital economy seeks to break the old markets rule and, to paraphrase, remain liquid for longer than the market can remain rational. Both fail, the only question is over what timeframe.

QPQ's Gajumaru blockchain is a genuinely open source resource layer for the world that delivers upon the promise of blockchain and provides a common base for all.

Disruptive technology creates ripples of impact, with changes being poorly adapted. By way of example, we talk about the recording industry. They faced challenges when digital technology made distribution easier and cheaper and their failure to properly adapt lead to the rise of digital piracy.