The blockchain paradox: Why DLTs may do little to transform the economy
I agree with Vili Lehdonvirta&#x27;s analysis about governance and wrote a similar conclusion previously.[1]<p>Yes, the concept of &quot;money&quot; existed before governments and therefore doesn&#x27;t require government.  That said, <i>today&#x27;s modern money</i> is very much an instrument of government power.  This is why alt-coins will not overthrow fiat currencies like some enthusiasts believe because Bitcoin does not come with its own Bitcoin-police-force and Bitcoin-law-courts.<p>The distributed block chain may eventually prove useful for other recordkeeping such as real estate property transactions (e.g. no need to pay $300 fee for title searches in the future), or maybe buy&#x2F;sell internet domain names (e.g. don&#x27;t need Verisign as middleman to buy dot com domains). 
 Those scenarios are more realistic than Bitcoin&#x2F;Ethereum replacing government approved fiat currencies.  DLTs may still transform the economy -- but not in the ways people expect.<p>There&#x27;s definitely some interesting applications of distributed consensus ledger but the idea of bypassing government money is overhyping its potential.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11934120" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=11934120</a>