Blockchain. There for a good 20-30 years, now a fad, gone in the future.

I don't think so. Unless it's regulated into oblivion, which is somewhat likely. The corrupt happily destroy anything so long as they profit from its destruction. (The stupid people will, too, so long as someone tells them it's bad.)

Block chain has been around for even longer I think, just not so visible and hyped.

In a way, digital signature chains is a block chain, although a short one usually.

And the concept of a log incorporating the last entry hash has many uses.

It might fade from the hype, but I would be very surprised it it actually dud vanish as such ;)

Blockchain money, that won't happen. Blockchain storage, voting, signatures, processing or something like that is way more likely to stay. (no government will ever abandon taxation by inflation)

Agreed. As for why? I think lots of things will become blockchained and then someone will point out how much energy is being used / CO2 is being released by all those mining processors and the whole thing will be eco-warriored away.

(I appreciate "blockchain" doesn't imply decentralised, but I think that's what people mean most of the time.)

@joycestick I think proof of work will eventually disappear in favor of other methods, like proof of stake. The collateral doesn't always have to be CPU cycles, as long as it's something of value.

I also think there are too many fundamental issues with blockchain currencies for them to truly mainstream.

However, I think blockchain as a technology will stay, and evolve. I can imagine it being used in tandem with existing technologies -- like power grid management, cadastre changes when transferring property, sharing healthcare files, supply chain tracking, etc.

Sounds like you just dont know what blockchain is

@zvyn In some cases, the central authority is failing though, or isn't trusted by the population.

I think for example for supply chains of textiles, cocoa, coffee, diamonds and other exported goods where there's a lot of fraud regarding sourcing and work conditions, you could have a blockchain specifically designed to incorporate trust of inspectors, maintain a trusted ledger of the trade of batches of goods, include "inspection of inspectors" and have a loss of stake for corrupt inspectors. At the end of the chain, the consumer can check the history of the product, and the reputation of those who vouch for it.

I think blockchain will eventually shine when it's applied to very specific industries, in very specific cases.

It's easy to forget about weaknesses as well though -- voting on blockchain sounds cool, but only if vote-selling not a big problem... so it's nice for some kind of shareholder voting analogue, but for representative democracies I can't see it work.

Etherium is cool though