The comparison of blockchain and cryptocurrencies today to the early days of the internet isn’t entirely incorrect. As those of a certain age may remember, the consumer internet in its early days was slow and lacked most of the features we are accustomed to now.
Blockchain is at a similar stage. Consumer adoption is still pretty low, and doing things is often confusing and difficult. This means developers have a tremendous opportunity to shape the future of the blockchain industry.
In general, new technologies are being adopted ridiculously fast—faster than ever before (see Figure 10-1). Blockchain could be the next great consumer technology that takes off, if the right applications are found for it.
Of course, not everything ends up succeeding. The internet offers the lesson that being flexible and adaptable is the path to advancement. The world of blockchain can move at a dizzying pace, and therefore having views that adjust to the changing market and developer ecosystem is key.
Figure 10-1. Rate of adoption of different technologies over time
The More Things Change
In the 1970s, at the dawn of the internet, a group of computer industry representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, and France got together and devised the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. Their aim was to create an open and multilayered set of standardized ...
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