Blockchains and cryptocurrencies went into a spectacular meltdown in 2022. Professor Andreas Park — an expert of finance innovation at the University of Toronto — says that despite the ill tidings, businesses should keep an eye on the space...or risk missing out on a game-changing technology. 

Show notes: 

[0:00] “So I think there's a disconnect between what people are building on the blockchain and what the use cases are. There's a lot of beautiful ideas of how to streamline existing blockchain operations, how they can have some gimmicky trading tools and so on and so forth, but thinking about what business case you can solve and what value you bring to customers is a much harder problem.”

[1:08] A short journey through the recent history of cryptocurrency and blockchain. 

[2:11] What is a blockchain? What is a cryptocurrency? What is a token? And how do they work together? 

[3:17] Why Bitcoin is like Beanie Babies.

[4:16] A breakdown of utility tokens, stablecoins, asset tokens, futures and derivatives tokens, and governance tokens. 

[7:10] Crypto’s first boom/bust/boom cycle.

[8:03] The current Crypto winter, and how it compares to the 2000s dot.com bubble bust. 

[9:30] Is Cryptocurrency a Ponzi scheme? 

[10:24] To solve the current crisis, cryptocurrency needs to be more user friendly… 

[11:25] …and some regulatory support.

[12:07] But not all is lost. The dot.com bust paid dividends for some companies. Crypto and blockchain might follow the same path. 

[13:00] Crypto and blockchain is more than just a currency to be traded and sold. So what businesses should keep an eye on this space?

[14:38] “The reality is that a blockchain is a very useful piece of technology for borderless digital transfers of value. I cannot see a world in which just is not used, and this is not useful.”