Part Two is dedicated to debunking common myths and misconceptions about crypto. During any new technological revolution, a period where a cluster of new innovations drives a new long‐wave economic cycle, there are always some of the same types of observations and myths. We both remember, during the early adoption phase of the Internet Age, pundits who remarked that the Internet was just used for theft or crime or porn. Or people who said that there is no real functionality or application that would ever hit the mainstream. During the early days of the Internet, “the establishment” was noted for saying that the Internet was only used for games by nerds. Well, we all know how the Internet turned out. We argue the same thing is happening right now in the world of blockchain and crypto. Real vision is rare. People need to step back and consider that it takes decades for true innovation to get developed, built, and distributed globally.

Mobile phones back in the late 1990s were weak, but entrepreneurs could envision a world where everyone would have PCS (personal communication services) devices, a.k.a. smartphones, that would enable movies to be piped over the Internet to directly to the device. Music could be enjoyed on the device. Users could access the web through this PCS device, allowing anything that was done on a computer to be done on a mobile device. PCS devices obviously were the pre‐vision of smartphones. The first hardware that brought this type of functionality to market was Nokia and BlackBerry. But it took a decade for Apple to come out with the iPod and then the iPhone. It was that product that really brought the original vision of a PCS device to the market and by 2007–2008, just about everyone had a mobile device on their person, and was accessing the web, playing music, and using their phone in a way originally envisioned in that notion of a PCS device a decade earlier. It takes time.

While we wait in those early years, it's the vacuum of real products that makes way for myths that weave stories of concern or fear – stories that misrepresent what's really possible with innovation.

It happened in the early days of the Internet, and this time around is no different. With crypto and blockchain, the stories and articles that get the most “clicks” are stories of fear and concern about how crypto is bad for X, Y, and Z. Those of us in the crypto industry have a term for it: FUD. People spouting stories with fear, uncertainty, and doubt. FUD articles hit the mainstream far more than articles about the innovation and the groundbreaking products and services that are getting built. The average person is far more likely to read an article about how bad crypto is for the environment or how much money has been stolen using crypto than to read a story about how new services using blockchain technology can revolutionize how we do business, or articles that explain what the technological innovation actually is and what we can do now that we previously couldn't.

In this section, we aim to address some of those myths and provide a compelling counterpoint to consider. Sometimes – actually, most times – with technological innovation that's early in its adoption cycle, things may not be what they seem at first blush.