The Holy Blockchain
– “And for this part of the project, we’ll use blockchain.”
– “That doesn’t make sense at all.”
– “Yeah, we know. But that’s how we get it funded.”
Blockchain has recently ascended to the Mount Olympus of Tech, and has taken its place next to the "Big Data" and "AI" Godesses and the "Cloud" and "Mobile" Gods.
Many important people - politicians, lawyers, CEOs have heard by now about the new God in the Tech Pantheon and might have even learned a bit about how, starting as mere mortal, Blockchain has triumphed of its own labours thus deserving a place among the Tech Gods.
At about the same time, some IT people who knew the new God since it was only a bumbling teenager, have started thinking about "demystifing Blockchain". That could have very unfortunate consequences.
Although blockchain as a technology is indeed complex, it can be understood and explained. Trying to explain it so that people who do not have a solid background in cryptography and distributed computing understand it requires a significant effort. What is much harder to envision, let alone explain, is how this technology is going to impact our society in the future, what part of the things it enables will come true.
Blockchain's mystique springs from two distinct sources:
- The intrinsic complexity of the technology and the mental effort to make sense of it all. This is close to "awe" and can be overcome.
- The exciting opportunities for changing the world that people attribute to it. This is closer to "faith" and it holds immense power to transform the world.
Faiths, all faiths have shaped humanity's past, present and, because humans have remained humans, they will shape its future. In the past it was religious faith but we have seen that declining over the course of the last century.
Science and Technology are among the biggest sources of faith and mystique that have emerged to replace that inner feeling that moved crowds to attend Sunday Mass. Where formerly we had religious warriors we now have eco-warriors whose acts are guided by the teachings of Science.
And we have crypto-warriors who dream of reshaping societies thanks to the power of the Blockchain.
What I want to emphasize is that faith and mystique are integral to that power. Through a social phenomenon called reflexivity, what people collectively believe about the "godliness" of Blockchain feeds back into the way we use it and behave around it.
This is best understood by reflecting on the history of the Dark Ages. Those were gruesome times when the Black Death was riding triumphant across Europe.
source
Yet at about the same time, despite the misery, faith spurred the construction of architectural marvels such as the Gloucester Cathedral
source
or Saint's John Baptistery in Pisa
source
Thus faith and mystique are everything.
If it wasn't for mystique, how do you think people who were living and, especially, dying in droves like that could have been organized and bothered, at about the same period, to build marvels like this ?
Back then, you had to invoke the name of God to "get funded". In our ages, you need to invoke the Saint Big Data or the Saint AI or the Holy Blockchain. Humans have "functioned" in the same way for 2 millenia, who would expect them to change ?
What matters are the cathedrals that, thanks to the power of faith, got built, withstood the test of time and that we still gasp in awe at, centuries after they have been built.
They wouldn't have been erected if it wasn't for the faith and mystique that brought people together to work toward a common goal.
Other posts on blockchain technology that you might enjoy:
- Blockchain revolution: the CIOs' dilemma
- Le printemps de la blockchain - (fr)
- Blockchain and the End of the Western Civilization
- Sovereign identity on blockchain
- Blockchain revolution: Money and Credit
- La Blockchain et la Fission Nucléaire - with English abstract
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Cathedrals were not built during "gruseome times." Europe's age of cathedrals was roughly between 1000 and 1350, a period of relative peace and prosperity. Some of the main cathedrals were already completed by the time the Plague hit Europe around 1350. After that, the pace of construction slowed considerably. A few major objects such as Rouen, Ulm and Cologne were only completed in the late 19th century. In the case of Rouen, it took 850 years from start to finish.
The cathedrals cost a great deal of money, and as far as I know not a single cathedral token went "to the moon". Sure, the artisans building cathedrals were generally well paid, but no-one became rich building cathedrals.
Yes, any social movement requires some "faith and mystique" - religion is of course perfectly suited for this, as it almost by definition deals with stuff you cannot prove. So that's what one has to be careful about: the "cult" part has to be based on something vague, like "decentralisation" or "cryptocurrencies", rather than on technology which keeps evolving.
Speaking of faith: what about greed? If you're looking for historical parallels, the California Gold Rush comes to mind more readily than the building of cathedrals...
You are nitpicking.
From Wikipedia: "The Pisa Baptistery of St. John: Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second building, in chronological order, in the Piazza dei Miracoli, near the Duomo di Pisa and the cathedral's free-standing campanile, the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa."
On the other hand: "The Black Death arrived in Italy by sea, first making landfall in Sicily in early October, 1347. By January 1348 it had landed in Venice and Genoa. A few weeks later it appeared in Pisa and from this foothold it moved rapidly inland, east through Tuscany and south to Rome. By the time it died down in the winter of 1348 more than a third of Italy’s population had perished." source
Whether anyone became rich is mostly irrelevant, I chose to focus on the outcome, the cathedrals themselves, which are still here several centuries later.
And here too, you are mistaken: by enhancing their status, the cathedrals greatly enriched the priests, cardinals and more generally the Catholic Church (though not the artisans). Someone did became immensely rich, just not the ones most people were looking at.
Anyway, you better start blogging rather than merely criticizing :-P
:))))
That one reminds me about some company in US who has nothing to do with Blockchain, but they added the word Blockchain to their name and the price for share went up 127% in about a week after :))).
Yes, we need some greater power like gods or Blockchain 😁! This way we can dream about how Blockchain will come on a white horse and give us back the power and money stolen by the rich 😉. The Robin Hood of today 😂!
Great article as always, it took me only one reading this time 😁. Also, I will keep in mind to use some Blockchain in my next funding receipt 😎.
Good, thank you, it means I'm improving :-) That company was "Long Island Iced Tea Company" who chose to become "Long Island Blockchain Company" :-) I mention it in this post: Blockchain revolution: the CIOs' dilemma
Wow, look at that! My vote is finally worth a full cent 😎!
Yes, that's the company. I stumbled on this at the time I was trying to get what Blockchain is doing and I believe it was a podcast on SoundCloud. Still funny though 😂.
I totally agree that human nature is human nature: From living in caves to colonizing Mars, people tend to manifest some of the same group behaviors, but in different contexts. Personally, I associate malls with temples, they seem to be part of the same behavior, just dedicated to different ”gods”.
Blockchain is such a myth that its fantastic and I would argue that this is its grates advantage. No one will be able to control how it evolves because no one is able to predict what it will really be used for and by the time it is apparent, it will be too late :)
:-) I hope not ! :-) I don't want a "nuclear winter" nor a return to the "Dark Ages" :-)
People need faith in order to move forward. True. But there is this another component you mentioned but didn’t want (probably :p ) to focus on: society moves forward when its continuity is put to test (wars, famine, plagues etc). Though we fear each of the above, if we check history on the big picture, we moved forward and made “that leap” (especially technologically) after we got decimated 😬
I guess blockchain is so interesting because, when we speak about financial control, it promises that it will put back the power in the hands of the people, this time for good, by taking the power from the banking system. It’s important that this new wave of thinkers in this field of application, have a new paradigm to try to make it work. From this frenzy, some “cathedrals” will surely arise :)
Are you saying that we need to decimate our current banking/financial foundations before we can truly move on with crypto and blockchain? Now THAT'S truly horrific, isn't it?
Nop...I’m just saying what I think blockchain and it’s fanatic discipols promiss.0 You don’t see my wallet filled with my salary, do you? 😝
That comparison so eerie and true that is a little bit frightening. We as humans have worshiped anything that seemed to bring gains or was a herald of a disaster.
Obviously today's worship means devotion of monetary kind and blockchain fits the divine description perfectly.
Yep, I've touched upon this topic of our growing enslavement to the Money God in my previous article and I'm going to keep writing about it.
Your historic analogy was great way to look at the blockchain. I think part of the reason for all building during the dark ages was faith, but faith in religion because of fear of death.
I think blockchain is also faith/fear based. The fear is of institutional/governmental decisions , actions and regulations that only help the rich. The faith in technology because it is seen as the great equalizer.
Absolutely!
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Nice piece of writing as always @sorin.cristescu!
I have had similar reflections, there are some kind of metaphysical aspects to the blockchain, whether they are real or perceived, who can really tell, but it is much more then some trendy "buzzword" that is for sure!
/FF
thank you !
I've watched your posts, which, contain some stunning images, also have interesting, well-formulated content that shows reality and teaches us a lot of things. I am happy to read about what you write 😊. I wish you a nice weekend And Bravo ! for what you are doing.
Carolina, thank you. You seem to be relatively new here - I see you let your VP go to 83% (as of 28.04.2018 at about 10:00 CET) which is a bit too low.
You might want to read these two posts in order to learn quickly :-)
and
Take a look at this picture to see an example of the multiplier effect:
Thanks a lot, the truth is that I do not know too much, but I was lucky to have good people who have taught me something (alexdory, ionutciobanu and mu1stu) anything to learn, I am willing to do, thank you and a nice Saturday.
Photos are very large and very wonderful
Excellent article I wish you all the best
thank you, glad you enjoyed it