Intro

Many things you read about cryptocurrencies are true. Others deserve further consideration to avoid the risk of pandering to the prevailing one-track mindset.

When discussing Web3, we must strive to do so from a global perspective, considering both space and time.
From the Northern Hemisphere, from our comfortable sofas in our beautiful homes—warmer in winter than summer, cooler in summer than winter, perhaps in the comfort and safety of restricted traffic zones—when we discuss cryptocurrencies, let’s also keep in mind that:

• There are countries that don’t need to open a history book to understand Weimar. They have it at the supermarket. Every day.
• There are over 2 billion people without access to the banking system, but who often have a smartphone.
• The US dollar has lost 98% of its value since 1971 (Nixon’s withdrawal from the 1944 Bretton Woods agreements).
• There are future generations who will have to pay the price for the celebrated whatevers with which we saved (and are saving) the above.
• There are financial institutions that can afford to pay top management astronomical salaries.
• There are countries where the government can directly access citizens’ bank accounts.
• There are countries that claim the right to mint money for the entire world just because they won two (or three) world wars.
• There are countries that want to claim the right to mint money for the entire world just because they think they’ll win the next world war.
• There are countries that our Countries have enslaved, exploited, polluted, and that, to clear our consciences, we now dispense with rules designed for worlds that only incidentally happen to be on the same planet.

In short, let’s think before throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

General Concepts

Unfortunately, even in the prestigious press and not just in sports bar discussions, the inseparable link between blockchain and cryptocurrencies is almost always overlooked.

Unfortunately, the concept that without blockchain, cryptocurrencies simply wouldn’t exist is struggling to gain traction, just as without cryptocurrencies, an entire category of blockchains (at least the public ones) couldn’t exist and function. This is because cryptocurrencies are used to pay for blockchain services. What services? Essentially, data recording. What data? It depends on the blockchain’s purpose, whether generalist or specific. And we’ll stop here for now; that’s enough. It’s enough to be clear that you can’t talk about one without the other and vice versa.

What are cryptocurrencies for?

Having made this necessary premise, and starting, for once, with blockchains and not cryptocurrencies, it’s necessary to make a preliminary distinction between the types of blockchain. Let’s remember an important aspect, which is also too often overlooked: blockchains and related cryptocurrencies have a worldwide dimension, regardless of location, skin color, religion, holidays, time zone, political system, etc. This is not a secondary aspect.

To put it simply:

Blockchains (and cryptocurrencies) that serve little or no purpose: typically Bitcoin, which, in effect, serves no purpose other than recording Bitcoin transactions and, with a maximum capacity of 7 transactions per second, is also slow and cumbersome. Among these is also Monero, the main cryptocurrency with the characteristic of prioritizing transaction confidentiality.

Blockchains (and cryptocurrencies) that serve a purpose: to put it simply, almost all the others, at least the top twenty by market capitalization. Obviously, we’re leaving aside all the hundreds more whose sole purpose is to enrich their inventors and make them disappear as quickly as possible. The useful blockchains, if we want to call them that, are mostly second-generation: Ethereum, Solana, ADA, XRP, Stellar, Chainlink, to focus on some of the best-known. What are they used for? Each has its own specialization, but in general, they serve to write things, records. Let’s look at some of the main ones.

• Ethereum: It is the most complex and complete. The idea is to be a blockchain for the execution and management of smart contracts, i.e., software modules (scripts) that perform specific actions recorded on the blockchain. Services are paid for with the cryptocurrency Ether, which, not coincidentally, is the second-largest by market capitalization.
• Solana: Similar to Ethereum, with the aim of Overcome the speed issues plaguing Ethereum. Yes, because the Ethereum blockchain is also quite slow, clocking in at 15-20 transactions per second, and often very expensive. Services are paid for with the cryptocurrency of the same name.
• Cardano: Similar to Ethereum and Solana, it aims to overcome the speed issues plaguing Ethereum. Services are paid for with the ADA cryptocurrency.
• XRP and Stellar: Designed for bank transfers of funds. In particular, XRP is being discussed as a possible antMolte cose che si leggono sulle cryptovalute sono vere.
• Chainlink: It aims to act as a bridge between the blockchain world and the real world, using Oracles to make real-world events external to the blockchain available to other blockchains, events necessary for the functioning of smart contracts. For example, news of a natural disaster, a temperature threshold, the price of a stock, or the death or illness of a person. Services are paid for with the eponymous cryptocurrency.
• Want to know in real time where public spending money is going, down to the last Satoshi (1/100000000 of a Bitcoin)?

Cryptocurrency Transparency

Despite what you might read in the mainstream press, one of the most important features of (public) blockchain technology, including all those mentioned so far, is transparency. This transparency extends to public cryptocurrencies (at least almost all of them, except for a niche category, privacy coins).

Transparency means that any record on the blockchain is immediately available for reading by anyone interested. How? It’s simple: just connect to the blockchain scanner with any browser (Edge, Chrome, etc.) and you can view all transactions (records) made by anyone.

So why do we hear that cryptocurrencies are opaque? Because everything is based on an alphanumeric address (a counter number to create a similarity with the traditional banking system), whose owner, if we want to call it that, is anonymous. Anonymous until it interacts with the traditional financial system, because at that point it becomes known, and all its actions become known, indelibly recorded on the blockchain.

So the real question is: are we really so sure we really want all this transparency? It’s one thing to talk about it at the bar, but it’s another to actually have it. An example for everyone: are we really sure that governments would want everyone to know in real time where public spending money goes, down to the last Satoshi (1/100,000,000 of a Bitcoin)?