This is the beginning of what we intend to be a series of posts looking at the basics of Blockchain Technologies and Cryptoassets. As readers of this blog will know, we have spent a lot of time talking to people about this world. And as we noted there is a big disconnect between people who are active in the community and other very smart people who are either unfamiliar or strongly skeptical about it.  When pushed on the subject, we find that many ‘non-believers’ just do not know that much about a topic which has become incredibly complex. (Admittedly, there are those who know a lot and are still skeptical, we will touch on their concerns in a future post.) So our goal with this series is to walk through the basics.

We are firmly in the camp of the ‘believers’, but we are decidedly NOT fierce advocates, or ‘maximalists’ as they are often called. Of the roughly 10,000 (or more) cryptoassets on the market today, we think the vast majority will eventually fade away. We told one friend that we think 90% will die out in a few years, to which he responded “Oh, so you are an optimist.”

Nonetheless, we think it is impossible to examine the space closely and not come away impressed with the amount of talent and resources that smart people are devoting to these projects. There is an immense amount of intellectual ferment swirling around cryptoassets right now. That alone should merit closer attention. For us, it boils down to the simple fact that when there are thousands of poorly-understood new projects on the market this is an analyst’s dream. At heart, we are simple analysts and we love a good puzzle.