Grand Arc of Technology by Andreas Antonopoulos

This is a small breakdown from the book, The Internet of Money, by Andreas M. Antonopoulos. It deals with the concept of Grand Arc of Technology. Lets get to it...

"When content begins as the domain of exclusivity, elitism, and limited access, it is used by grandmasters to create masterpieces. Masterpieces are made by grandmasters. Then the medium changes because the technology becomes more available. People start using it for a broader range of expression, but the gatekeepers still cling to the old ideas. They still try to do the grandiose with their medium. The gatekeepers of the past still cling to the past but now they can't really pretend that it's grandiose, so they just do grandstanding. They say, 'There's a certain quality to vinyl that CDs will never capture.' 'A TV anchor really has authority. Don't you remember Walter Conkite?' 'A newspaper is the source of authoritative opinion and it really is worth the paper it's printed on.'

Grandstanding. The grandiosity is gone. The quality is gone. Now, it's just a matter of clinging to the control and pretending that control is still quality. Finally, in this grand arc of technology, the technology reaches the final stage. In that final stage, the only people who still believe it's grand are grandparents. The masterpiece is now only consumed by those in the last stages of their lives.

The first checks written out were used by royalty to fund great ventures like the East India Company to open the spice roads and trade routes to the East. In those days, only royals had checkbooks. Today, if you go into a supermarket and the grandmother in front of you in the line opens her purse and pulls out the checkbook, 15 people in line are going to groan audibly, as they realize it's going to take 15 minutes to write out that transaction. There's nothing left of the grandiosity of funding the East India Company when you're buying beans and toast with a checkbook in a supermarket. It's the final stage.

As we move into this world where money is a content type, the gatekeepers of the old payment systems will cling to the illusion that traditional banking is quality...that the gatekeepers are the quality. That the quality is inherent in the gatekeeping- in the control, in the censorship, in the limitations. They serve no purpose other than grandiosity. They'll still try to persuade you that through their control, they protect you from evil, from terrorists, from money launders. All they're doing is protecting their own incumbency from competition. With Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, we have now separated the message from the medium. Money is now a content type, and we're never going back."

I totally agree with Andreas on this one. When I attempt to describe crypto technology to newcomers, I am often hit the same questions and the same uncertainty and doubt. People are slow to change. It is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks. However, once people begin to realize how blockchain technology has the potential to change the world for the better, there will be no turning back. It is similar to people who said that they would never buy a cell phone. Now cell phones are ubiquitous. The same will happen with crypto currencies...mark my words.

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