How 'Big Blockchain' Is Inevitable

Blockchain applications currently do not wield economic and political power as brazenly as major tech companies because they have yet to achieve any comparable user base.

The essential question is whether, if and when blockchain finds its own killer apps that those services will be meaningfully more decentralized than the current options.

The answer is - unless the blockchain industry proactively works to prevent it - probably not.

There's a good chance that in a decade or two we'll be complaining about the evil nature of "Big Blockchain" in the same way we complain about Big Tech today.

There's a good chance that in a decade or two, we'll be complaining about the evil nature of 'Big Blockchain' in the same way we complain about Big Tech today.

Blockchain already exhibits early evidence of the same economic forces that have driven consolidation in the broader economy.

To avoid a similar fate, those working in blockchain will need to make some major industry-wide investments over the next decade.

At a minimum, blockchain founders and investors need to recognize that many of the fundamental economic forces that are driving consolidation across the economy will also apply to blockchain-based applications.

Second, as I've discussed previously, blockchain presents a new environment that requires custom-designed decentralized governance.

Hundreds of years of insights in economics, political science, law and business must be translated and adapted into collective decision-making processes suitable for blockchain and resistant to consolidation.