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Perhaps 2018 is bitcoin's 1994.
...By 1998 things had changed alot. Win 95/98 IE/Netscape made it much more useful and simple to use the internet and sites began to proliferate. I had dropped out to take a 35k job at a search engine optimization company (which seemed like alot at the time) that quickly went out of biz, but my connections from that job led to other connections that have kept me working for the 20 years since.
tldr; if it's 1994, buckle up, things will be unrecognizable in 4 years.
What would be our Netscape moment? Or AOL temporary dominance?
Is Lightning a.k.a Netscape (without the IPO) and is Coinbase/Binance/Bitfinex, perhaps, the AOL equivalent?
Or, would it be something else out of left field?
As Andreas Antonopoulos like to say, bitcoin is the internet of money. Currency is just the first app on the bitcoin blockchain.
That's our killer app (for now). Lightning network will refine this and give us such innovations as "streaming money". So, perhaps a LN based payments solution that changes the way we think about money will be our Netscape moment.
The Death of AOL will come when people realize bitcoin is more than just currency. Just as people realized the internet was more than their AOL walled garden. The BTC blockchain could replace 25% of our jobs within 5 years. IRS/tax authority fuckers, accountants, many attorneys, the secretary of state/DMV, registers of deeds, bankers, accounts payable/receivable people. Bitcoin will replace them all and then some.
Exactly. So many useful purposes, where thing can run so much more effeciently. For example here in NL, the city of Utrecht and the central government are experimenting with storing your identy on a blockchain, so you can easily prove who you are without sending a copy of your personal information (in NL it's a BSN, in the US that would be your social security number) or a copy of your ID. That would seriously reduce the risk of identity fraud. Another municipality is experimenting with transactions for people on wellfare using an app based on a blockchain. So much less administration and forms, people can just go to a store and get e.g. clothing for their children paying with an app.