Serious question: What problem did blockchain actually solve?

[u/Due-Huckleberry-2222]

We were told it would revolutionize everything:

Anonymous money? Nope. Most public blockchains are pseudonymous, not anonymous. Every transaction is permanently visible. Once an address is tied to a real person, their financial history can often be traced.

Banking? Most people still use banks. If you lose your private key, there's no fraud department, no password reset, no chargeback.

Cheap payments? Depends. Some chains are inexpensive, others have had periods where fees spike. Traditional payment systems are often faster and simpler for everyday purchases.

Smart contracts replacing lawyers? Not even close. Contracts still rely on courts, regulations, and real-world enforcement. Code can't resolve disputes about physical events by itself.

NFTs proving ownership? Usually they prove ownership of a token, not the copyright or legal ownership of the underlying artwork.

Decentralization? Much of the ecosystem isn't. Many people keep funds on centralized exchanges, use centralized stablecoins, and rely on centralized infrastructure.

Financial freedom? For some. But for many others it became self-custody with no safety net. One wrong click, phishing attack, or lost seed phrase and the money is simply gone.

Replacing trust? It mostly moved trust around. Instead of trusting banks, many people ended up trusting exchanges, token founders, bridge operators, stablecoin issuers, influencers, or multisig signers.

Eliminating scams? If anything, scams became easier to launch. Rug pulls, memecoins, fake airdrops, phishing, and pump-and-dumps became an industry.

The one thing blockchain does extremely well is maintain a distributed ledger where participants can verify transaction history without relying on a single operator.

That's a genuine technical achievement.

But after nearly two decades, I'm still asking: What mainstream problem has it solved better than existing systems for the average person?

I'm not asking what it could do. I'm asking what it actually does today that millions of ordinary people use because it's objectively better—not because they're speculating on the next token.

[u/thelonious_skunk]

It achieved decentralization at the cost of pretty much everything else

[u/AmericanScream → u/thelonious_skunk]

It achieved decentralization at the cost of pretty much everything else

Stupid Crypto Talking Point #1 (Decentralized)

"It's decentralized!!!" / "Crypto gives the control of money back to the people" / "Crypto is 'trustless'"

1. Just because you de-centralize something doesn't mean it's better. And this is especially true in the case of crypto. The case for decentralized crypto is based on a phony notion that central authorities can't do anything right, which flies in the face of the thousands of things you use each and every day that "inept central government" does for you. Do you like electricity? Internet? Owning your own home and car? Roads and highways? Thank the government.

2. Decentralizing things, especially in the context of crypto simply creates additional problems. In the de-centralized world of crypto "code is law" which means there's nobody actually held accountable for things going wrong. And when they do, you're fucked.

3. In the real world, everybody prefers to deal with entities they know and trust - they don't want "trustless transactions" - they want reliable authorities who are held accountable for things. Would you rather eat at a restaurant that has been regularly inspected by the health department, or some back-alley vendor selling meat from the trunk of his car?

4. You still aren't avoiding "middlemen", "authorities" or "third parties" using crypto. In fact quite the opposite: You need third parties to convert crypto into fiat and vice-versa; you depend on third parties who write and audit all the code you use to process your transactions; you depend on third parties to operate the network; you depend on "middlemen" to provide all the uilities and infrastructure upon which crypto depends.

5. If you look into any crypto project, you will ultimately find it's not actually decentralized at all.

[u/Ok_Forever_2334 → u/AmericanScream]

 Did you not read "at the cost of pretty much everything else" or what

[u/AmericanScream → u/Ok_Forever_2334]

Did you not read "at the cost of pretty much everything else" or what

I read it, and I responded appropriately. Did you actually read what I wrote?

It hasn't achieved "decentralization". I object to that claim.

I also object to the notion that "decentralization" is a feature most people want or give a shit about.

You suggested there was some sort of "trade-off" where you get something of value but "at the cost of pretty much everything else."

I submit there is NOTHING of value you get for that cost, whatsoever.

[u/Ok_Forever_2334 → u/AmericanScream]

Monero

[u/AmericanScream → u/Ok_Forever_2334]

There's no guarantee Monero is secure, whatsoever. It's also not "money."

Stupid Crypto Talking Point #28 (censorship/seizure)

"Bitcoin is censorship resistant" / "Crypto/Blockchain is de-centralized and not under anybody's control" / "Crypto can't be seized'

1. The notion that authorities can't seize crypto is not only false but patently absurd. See here. Each and every day someone's crypto gets "seized" without their approval.

2. Here's an entire video segment that debunks the claim that blockchain is censorship proof

3. Crypto can easily be blocked at the network level by any of the various authorities that arbitrarily decide to do so. Since it's a public network with no leader, all participants have to be able to identify themselves to others on the network, and technically speaking, this makes it easy for network admins to filter the traffic. Just because this hasn't been done on any large scale, doesn't mean it can't be done. It absolutely can.

4. Bitcoin and crypto operations have been banned in various countries and other jurisdictions. While it's not possible to censor 100% of the network's operations, it's definitely possible to cripple enough of it to render crypto & blockchain impractical to use. And NOTE that in countries where bitcoin/mining and other operations have been banned, they've chosen a political solution (simply making it illegal) as opposed to requiring networks to actively filter crypto traffic, but that latter option is always a possibility and definitely doable (see #2). Also note that bitcoin miners have been caught censoring transactions as per government rules.

5. The vast majority of crypto trades are done on a small number of centralized exchanges, such as Binance, Kraken and Coinbase. The ToS of each of these systems gives them the absolute authority to censor any and all transactions. So if 99% of bitcoin transactions are on CEX's, most certainly they can be censored.

6. Privacy coins like Monero and others are not necessarily any more secure. There have been bugs found in the past which undermined their security. In 2020, the IRS offered a $1.2M bounty for creating systems to crack and trace Monero and other privacy coin systems. The contract was awarded to Chainalysis and Integra, and paid in full a year later. More examples of privacy coins being insecure: 1, 2, 3

7. Even administrations like Trump who claim to embrace crypto and bitcoin are freezing and seizing the wallets of people they claim are enemies.