Why can I assert now that blockchain technology is at least as important as internet technology?

Author: Wang Jianshuo

Standing at this point in time in 2023 and looking back at history, we already know the profound impact that the internet revolution has had on our lives and society. But could we have made such predictions at the very beginning of the internet, say in 1993?

Of course we could.

In 1996, any science and engineering student like me, upon first seeing that the internet could transmit one byte of information across the ocean in less than a second and at almost zero cost, should have realized that it would have a profound impact on humanity. Although no one knew exactly what the internet could do at that time. No one could accurately predict the internet as we know it today. However, the ability to transmit information instantly and at zero cost is a new capability created by human technology. Seeing this new capability, one could be very certain that this is the future of human society.

As of today in 2022, as a technologist, we see a technology that has established a unified global ledger, which adds a new row periodically, and once the one byte of information in the previous data is written, it can never be changed. This capability has never existed in human history.

I am completely uncertain about what this thing can do. It is even hard to say whether using it for cryptocurrency is the most suitable application. Perhaps we are still in the pre-browser era of the internet. But that is not important; what matters is that this capability is so fundamental and so powerful that I am 100% certain that the ability to write one byte of information that cannot be changed is at least as fundamental as the ability to quickly transmit one byte globally. I also believe that even if all applications based on this capability are unreliable now, it is merely because we have not found the most suitable application scenarios, and time will solve this problem.

The fundamental technological capabilities of humanity have never been driven by application scenarios; most are accidental discoveries that later find applications.

Did our ancestors tens of thousands of years ago invent fire just to cook food? No. They accidentally discovered that fire could be preserved, mastered this technology, and then spent who knows how many years discovering that cooking the hunted prey made it taste better.

Did Watt improve the steam engine to drive trains? Of course not. From the legendary moment when steam pushed the lid off a kettle to the actual improvement of the steam engine, and then to its application in steamboats, and finally to the invention of the steam locomotive, countless years passed. It was only after the ability to convert fire into power through steam was developed that many years were spent finding applications.

Not to mention that when Franklin proved the existence of electricity with a kite, was it because he was struggling with a lack of lighting at night? Of course not. The invention of electricity came first, and finding out what electricity could do was a matter for a century later in Edison’s time.

When Nobel invented dynamite, how could he have imagined it would later be used to make guns? When Einstein discovered the mass-energy equivalence, was it preliminary research for making the atomic bomb?

All these examples illustrate an observation of mine: Most revolutionary technologies in the history of technology are intentionally or unintentionally discoveries of capabilities that humanity previously did not possess. Finding a suitable application scenario for these capabilities often takes hundreds of years.

Returning to blockchain, we finally have the ability to write any byte of information into a global ledger (Table 1) that cannot be changed. This ability was previously only possessed by God, and that ability is called "time." As time passes, everything that happens in this universe every second is compressed into a divine blockchain called "history." Humanity has not yet found the ability to decipher God's arrangement to change what has already happened in the previous second.

Blockchain is a rough imitation created by humanity, mimicking God's time.

As the block numbers increase, the previous row of data compressed into this database becomes unchangeable, just like history. Although this time machine is not as powerful or precise as God's, with TPS not as high and security not as good as God's blockchain called "time," it is sufficient for humanity in this era. Before blockchain technology, "time" was an exclusive ability of God.

Therefore, even if we stand at the starting point of this revolution, without having to experience the history of the next 30 years, I dare to assert 100% that this will certainly be a technological revolution at least comparable in scale to the internet revolution.

While I often question some of the buzzwords in the current Web3 field, and some confusing phenomena, perhaps not many people believe, as I do, in the fundamental progress this technology will bring to humanity in the next 30 years.

Even if all the applications we see now, including Ethereum, fail, fundamentally, humanity has still gained a new capability similar to fire, electricity, steam, and nuclear energy, a capability that will change human society.

This is the starting point of all my deductions.

Further Reading: “Dialogue with 'Debater' Wang Jianshuo: The Problem of Generalization in Web3 Terminology is Serious, Many Have Given Up the Ability to Speak Plainly”