In episode 7 of the Programmable World podcast, Daniel Cawrey, author of Mastering Blockchain, sat down with Dan Ilett, Managing Partner at Tollejo, and shared his expertise on cryptocurrency and blockchain.
More specifically, their discussion focused on two key trends or markets for the industry over its next stage of evolution.
Cryptocurrency has evolved quickly over the past decade – and it’s not slowing down
The cryptocurrency industry has undergone a significant transformation in the last 10 years. It has expanded beyond its role as a mere payment network to encompass various financial services, games, social networks, and other applications. Daniel suggests that Ethereum, in particular, has played a crucial role in enabling the development of applications on top of cryptocurrency.
The COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impact across most sectors, not least within the cryptocurrency space.
Perhaps in a more concentrated way than within the past decade, Daniel says that cryptocurrency is now “a lot more prevalent than you think” among the general population. He compares it to the evolution of social media, suggesting that cryptocurrency could perhaps become just as widespread in the near future.
Decentralised finance presents a dichotomy of both risks and benefits
Decentralised finance is a system that enables financial activities to be conducted without intermediaries. As such, it offers advantages such as lower barriers to entry and increased autonomy and control over finances compared to traditional systems. But it does face scalability challenges compared to centralised finance, and currently limited integration opportunities with businesses. Additionally, decentralised finance projects that are hosted on unstable blockchains inherit possible instability, posing risks and potential security problems.
Daniel delves into these topics in his writing, including in his upcoming book Understanding Crypto and in his regular columns for CoinDesk.
For the full story, you can click here to listen to the episode on the Tollejo YouTube channel.
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