(Blockchain was not created for savings growth. That diminishes  it's rightful global role. It is possible to change that). 

The cult-like infatuation of the crypto faithful for a particular car brand is very well known. The intent to disrupt finance is being carried on the back of some very expensive wheels. That may sound like the mother of all paradoxes. But there is a larger paradox embedded at the heart of crypto. Welcome to the Sandhill.

As the highly visible demand for crypto grows, it is slipping further and further away from the reach of the common man. Most people cannot afford to buy Bitcoin. Even Ethereum is expensive. There is a bigger issue one needs to be concerned about. The price of gas is going up. Apparently it has increased by over 600% in a year. This makes life difficult for start-ups, sole proprietors and small businesses. If the crypto industry wants to get mainstream acceptance, it cannot be prohibitive to transact. If this continues, innovation will grind to a halt. We may hold interesting debates about BTC being the next gold. Well, you don’t really want that. Gold is inert. It has not been used a medium of exchange for god knows how long. Keep that in mind.

The biggest problem facing the broad middle and below the pyramid segments is not access to financial services. That has always been there. Perhaps it has become somewhat more efficient. But what would one do with an empty bank account? Or with an account that barely pays interest? People need to find a way for their money to grow at a reasonable pace. That means, without having to resort to reckless adventurism. If crypto is to address that, it has to take a big next step. Blockchain was intended to solve a double counting problem without having to resort to a trusted intermediary. I am not sitting with Satoshi’s paper in front of me. But no one seems to have mentioned growing what we have. So we need another algorithmic journey. How would that work?

First, the transport layer of crypto has to be decoupled from investible traffic. You do not increase your toll tax on a highway simply because there are more people paying toll. Of course you can charge more to de-congest. That means, it is an intent to exclude and thin out the ranks. That is not really the intent, of course. So we need to get this right. Secondly, the matter of savings. One short term solution might be for pension funds to be allowed for end-user investment into crypto. But that also comes with it’s hazards. There is no alternative to original coding, then. In the longer term, we need a completely new concept of how programmatic money can grow savings. Nick Szabo once said that we must protect what is important to us. That, I argue, is not only privacy. Or the right to choice. It is also the right to reasonable growth of savings.

In other words, the world  needs a second Satoshi. Have a great day. Bye.