I’m sometimes a little skeptical about the future of the decentralized crypto-currencies because I’m afraid big multinational companies can steal the show and make their own services. (If it’s good business. And if not, even worst for us.)

There are dozens of cryptocurrency news sites with hundreds of posts every day but many of this news is what I call “noise”. “The crypto XYZ made a successful hard fork” (who cares) or “the startup ZXY merged with the company YZX” (who cares). I rarely see something that really matters, like totally new concepts, important developments, mature services suitable for mass usage. The crypto-space is in a slow transition.

But in the last days I have read some important news – seemingly outside of the crypro-business but news which can really affect us.

1. Money laundering scandal

There is a huge money laundering scandal in progress in Europe, allegedly billions of dollars of dirty Russian businesses were washed by European Banks, for example, Deutsche Bank. It’s about 1-2 trillions of dollars. Possibly you remember when Bitcoin was born? In the autumn-winter of 2008/2009, in the worst days of the “Lehman Brothers crash”.

Many experts are suspecting Bitcoin has this success because the trust in the conventional, traditional financial system was strongly undermined in the crisis. I don’t want to say we are at the edge of another financial crisis or collapse, I’m not so pessimistic. But every controversy in the old financial system can help cryptocurrencies. And this one seems to be a big one.

2. Putin’s internet

The Russians are building their own internet, as Bloomberg.com wrote, “Putin Wants His Own Internet”. “A new law would create a single command post from which authorities can manage—and halt—information flows across Russian cyberspace.” Welcome to the new brave world of Russian liberty.

But I think dictatorships, censorship, state oppression and overcontrol are all providing support for all who are building decentralized, anti-censure blockchain solutions, encrypted cryptos, dApps. Bad news for the world, but good news for crypto-space. With every dictatorship and censure, crypto-space is getting more important.

3. Failure of PDF-encryption

I suppose only very few people were paying attention to the news about PDF files. Many offices, authorities, companies are using PDF files to transmit official documents, bills, legal texts on the internet. A German study of the Ruhr University Bochum showed the encryption and protection of these documents are very bad. “Hardly any common program noticed when electronically signed PDF files were manipulated in their tests in a simple way. Invoices, letters to the authorities and reminders could be falsified in such a way that most PDF readers came to the conclusion that everything was fine with the electronic signature of the documents.” Not even Acrobat Reader, the program of the PDF-creator’s company, did recognize the changes…

We know the blockchain, the cryptocurrency-industry also can provide tamper-proof solutions, digital signatures (hashes), provable original information. Every news demonstrating the weakness of other solutions can improve the chances of blockchain solutions.

4. The death of Youtube?

The European Parliament will vote on a new internet copyright law end of March. Many internet users, rights organizations and some political parties are protesting because they see in the law new censorship and the limitation of free speech in the EU. Many are simplifying it saying “Youtube will dye”.

In reality, not only Youtube but Facebook, Twitter, and any other web pages are facing the challenge of the obligation of preventing the uploading of copyright-protected content. At this time the uploader is responsible for his uploads, but the law would make responsible the websites, platforms. This sites can very probably only comply with upload filter software which can’t operate perfectly. The result can be the disappearance of both legal and illegal content.

My wife is always on Youtube, watching not only puppies and kitties but also series and movies. I suppose the great part, maybe 75-85 percent is illegal. I suppose Google is living in a big part of these contents (the ads attached to it). If lawmakers can succeed in exterminating copyright-protected content, a mass runaway of users can be the result. Maybe some of them will return to their cable TV, but others can search for other video sources on the internet.

What will they find? Other mainstream platforms can be also censured, although not all. Piracy sites (and VPN services) can have a huge boom. D.tube has almost only Steem and cryptocurrency-related content, but maybe it’s time for them to extend the range of assortment.

5. The boom of the dApps

Bases of good capitalism: Supply and demand. If for the above reasons or any other, people turn their back to the mainstream media and seek crypto solutions (demand), they need good and user-friendly blockchain applications (supply). I’m glad to see the continuous expansion in the number of dApps (more than 2500 actually), I hope they are working good and are satisfying the needs of the people. Despite the “crypto-winter” (lower crypto-prices). I know most of the dApps have very few user activities, but I suppose there also will be a natural selection, evolution, and the better ones will survive and improve.
(Photo: Own work)