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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 8601904" data-attributes="member: 19857">This is exactly right.  Blockchain technology is useful in exactly one area - when you want to have a database that a) all information in it can be publicly read[*] and b) has no central authority that you can trust to maintain it.  If you have that problem then blockchain is your solution.That problem is very, very niche.  It's rare that you have need for a database where all transactions are public knowledge, and it's even more rare to have a database where there isn't a central authority that has responsibility for the data in the database that folks just need to trust if they want to use it.  The original "problem" that blockchain was trying to solve was to create a form of currency that would exist independent of any government body - the desire to remove the central authority means that folks who want to use that currency are willing to make all of their transactions public knowledge.Everything that isn't a currency that has come after has been crypto folks trying to figure out how to force that model into other areas.  The collectible market is an area where what's being traded is "like" currency in that collectibles kind of follow the same kind of markets that stocks and currency trading does.  But that's viewing the market backwards - the ownership of a collectible is important to the folks that collect them which creates a market of investors who skim money off of trades between the folks who see the collectible as having an intrinsic value outside of its monetary one.  Trying to bootstrap a collectible market from nothing instead of tapping into one that already exists to make money off of the trades shows a severe misunderstanding of the collectibles market - almost a cargo cult like reproduction of what's going on organically.(Ironically, the folks who designed cryptocurrencies to be independent of state governments have created a currency that is a godsend to authoritarian regimes because intrinsic in its use is the ability to see every transaction anyone makes with it.  But you might ask - I thought crypto was used for illegal transactions?  Yes - the anonymity is in the account you create that holds the crypto so it doesn't literally have your name on it.  But if that account can be connected to you every transaction you've ever made from it is linked to you, and not linking that account to you depends on you doing everything right to keep it anonymous.  If I didn't know better I'd think that crypto was an invention of the FBI or some other police organization to encourage folks to make their illegal transactions with a highly traceable currency to make their jobs easier).</blockquote>

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