It's not a brand new technology, it's 12 years old. Back in 2008, the iPhone was new technology -- look at it now. Bitcoin remains unchanged, as does the fundamental technology underlying substantially any relevant cryptocurrency. Proponents need to get over this whole "it's new" business. It's not new. It's old. Can you think of any other piece of software or hardware you continue to use from 2008 that you consider "new technology?" Do you consider the original iPhone (2G) to be "new technology?"
I don't think anyone was disappointed with where the Internet was in the early 80s and 90s, and that's because it fundamentally opened up new avenues for people to express themselves, new ways to interact. It wasn't perfect, but it created something new nobody had before. Many things!
The ability to move money online has been with us for decades. It's not new, either. Crypto doesn't open up any new capabilities except harder-to-track ransomware payments.
Ethereum was introduced in 2014, so I'd say blockchain based smart contracts are only 6 years old max. Try looking past bitcoin and see what's happening in DeFi. https://defipulse.com - any of the top projects are worth looking into. Don't be so quick to judge. A lot of progress has been made the past year and DeFi is much more sustainable.
Smart contracts are the worst idea in history of bad ideas, maybe even ever.
As a software engineer you know bugs exist. Software as immutable monetary contract law which cannot be appealed to anyone is a doubly bad idea as any bug is a vector for literally everyone losing literally everything, forever. Plenty of examples exist. Remember the DAO? Nothing's changed since then except people decided to "be more careful next time."
> Imagine if Facebook did something like this with $FB stock to reward it's early users.
Why would a company do that? It doesn't make sense. If a service is valuable you don't need to pay people to use it, they pay you to use it. You know, business, where money is exchanged for goods and services?
