Too Long; Didn't Read
This exposition is probably a little late, with Bitcoin prices slumping to $9,300 a coin today from a high of $19,000 in mid-December. Maybe the world’s traders, currency enthusiasts, and media elite have sobered up and realized what some of us already know, that bitcoin and blockchain are just good marketing, and the price has moved to reflect that realization. But nonetheless, I think the thoughts are valuable, especially because we find ourselves time and time again unable to reign in our vestigial instinct and fervor for hyping technologies and ideas from mild-uselessness to gleaming saviordom. Here’s why the ideas in the recent New York <em>Times</em> piece “Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble” by Steven Johnson are silly, dangerous, and show that even the smartest people thinking about bitcoin and blockchain don’t have the right perspective.