I'm so tired of hearing this same old story from the same old people. As soon as corporations figured out that they could create blockchain patents they've been jumping on the bandwagon left and right.
I've already written about Cisco, Amazon, Oracle, and Microsoft.
Now Walmart and Bank of America are trying to get in on the action.
It was only a few years ago that the entire establishment was bearish on blockchain and cryptocurrency. Now they are backpedaling hard because they can make a profit from blockchain.
First of all, Bitcoin is an easy target. Bitcoin is the coin that everyone knows about. It has the highest market cap and a myriad of problems. This situation reminds me of people who try to disprove evolution. It's easy to attack the weakest link (Darwin/Bitcoin) because it came first. They expect most people to not look past the foundation and see what the space has evolved into. They are preaching to the choir and are simply trying to delay the inevitable: mainstream adoption.
The main feature of cryptocurrency is decentralization of trust. We've made the middle man obsolete and we've made central authority obsolete. The establishment has absolutely no reason to embrace something that they can't control. Sometimes I think that crypto will not become mainstream until our unsustainable economy collapses in on itself like a dying star. Until then we have to keep chugging away at development until we can no longer be ignored.
The audacity of these robber barons is astounding. Do they really think that they can separate crypto from blockchain? These organizations are working hard to develop a space revolving around blockchain technology. They are helping this revolution whether they want to or not. When you look at a lot of the patents that are being developed, cryptocurrency is actually the central focus of the patent. This makes sense because we live in a world of artificial scarcity where everyone is focused on money because there isn't enough to go around (artificially so). Those who tout "Blockchain not Bitcoin" are either ignorant or deceptive.
Blockchain patents are a laughable idea. We are headed toward a new industrial revolution based on decentralization. A decentralized force has no weak point of attack. A corporation can't break patent law because they are centralized and targetable. Anyone can find them and serve them with legal proceedings. As we've seen with torrent peer to peer networks, it's much harder to go after people who break the "law" in a decentralized manner. How many times has Pirate Bay been shut down only to pop back up?
To top that off, Pirate Bay is a centralized server. What happens when we decentralize everything, including the Internet? Trying to enforce IP laws simply just isn't going to be worth it in the future. This is a great thing because IP laws do the opposite of their intention: They stifle innovation; not encourage it. When it comes down to it, any anonymous development team can come along, anywhere in the world, and use these blockchain patents for the good of humanity. And guess what? They don't even have to do it for free because duh, privacy coins. These antiquated IP laws aren't going to stop anyone but the people operating inside of the old antiquated system.
The establishment is trying to bend the blockchain for profits, but I see an epic backfire on the horizon. The addition of all these greedy centralized entities into the cryptosphere is a great thing. Governments may decide that cryptocurrency is indeed a true threat and try to ban it. What happens when several corporations are entrenched in blockchain technology and the government tries to ban what they are doing? Now we have men on the inside lobbying for our cause. The "Blockchain not Bitcoin" movement may turn out to be a most grand Trojan Horse on the side of decentralization.
