With the popularity of Bitcoin, NFTs and other "applications" of blockchain surging in popularity in recent years, there's been a corresponding increase in the grift supporting them. It's always been around, such as on /r/bitcoin where even bad news related to the Bitcoin project such as hacks and bans had people memeing that "this is good for bitcoin".

As someone who is quite into tech, what frustrates me most is hearing people make claims about how Blockchain technology is revolutionary and that anyone that stands against it just doesn't understand it. Ironically, these are often the same people that cannot explain why Blockchain would replace or improve on any existing technology. They'll taunt some of the following talking points about the exalted properties of Blockchain which I hope to lightly debunk.

Decentralisation in Blockchain does not make the data it stores more trustworthy or accurate. This decentralisation also doesn't mean the systems cannot be exploited, in fact it's often used as a way to shirk away responsibility whenever something does go wrong. This decentralisation assists scammers to stay anonymous such as in the SQUID token fiasco or Bitconnect.

DeFi (decentralised finance) as a whole is a bit of a flimsy concept. What use is a decentralised protocol if 0.01% of cryptocurrency holders control 27% of the supply? That's just as inequitable as US wealth. Bitcoin is just recreating that same inequality and if you want to get into it, you'll be holding the bag for that 0.01% so they can off-load their holdings into a currency that can actually be used.

Furthermore there isn't even much additional security or privacy with Blockchain. Many cryptocurrency holdings such as crypto.com or Binance have been hacked. It doesn't matter how secure the protocol supposedly is if the platforms hosting it aren't at least as secure. It's like a top of the line security system on your doors but leaving the windows open.

As for privacy, people seem to think that things like Bitcoin are anonymous, but they're not. They're pseudonymous and that distinction is important because it means that wallet identities can be found if someone tries hard enough.

The Blockchain being immutable is often touted as a benefit over traditional systems such as banking, because apparently there's a fear that banks will just play around with the numbers in your account. These people will ignore all the regulation that surrounds banks and that lack thereof in blockchain. Immutability really isn't anything special. It's just a setting for data storage which has existed for decades. Look into append-only storage. Having this for medical records or anything important is silly because it means mistakes are difficult/impossible to correct.

The information stored on Blockchains is only as good as the input. If you input the wrong medical records, blockchain doesn't magically know that it's incorrect. Same goes for recording supply chain data or anything else. If you put garbage into the system, garbage comes out (GIGO). Blockchain does nothing to alleviate this, and why should it? The reason these use cases are complicated isn't because of how you store the information, it's to do with people making mistakes.

Blockchain is not revolutionising the storage of data and anyone purporting it to be a good solution for storing supply chains, medical records, mortgages, government benefits etc. is either ignorant or is trying to take advantage of people who don't know better and fool them with the fancy words to fund a project. As a software engineer I really struggle to think of use cases for why I would ever use Blockchain over a traditional database. Even if I wanted some of the properties of Blockchain, alternatives already exist and they're practically always better.

The latest in crypto-bullshit is NFTs and Web3. NFTs are essentially a file format for storing stuff, you've probably seen examples of ugly apes being sold for thousands. Usually these NFTs literally just store a link to a Google Drive file which has an image or GIF... it's really stupid and I there isn't much else to say about it. This aspect "use-case" of Blockchain is probably the most heavily criticised by people because most people recognise it for the BS that it is. It's also just another vehicle for hackers. NFTs are powered by smart contracts which just means that alongside storing something like a link, they can store and execute code. And that means you can write code to just steal people's money if they even just click on your NFT!

Web3 however is a bit more subversive. It's so amorphous that people's eyes just glaze over it when someone claims to be a pioneer in space. The naming alone really annoys me because it positions itself as the next step for the web and that if you aren't on-board for this next step, you're just stuck in the past. Again, not much else to say beyond that has already been said but this is a buzzword to really avoid.

Check these out

These are some of the things which inspired me to write this. I mainly wrote it just because I've been thinking about it for a while and wanted to get it out of my head and onto paper (well my screen).

• Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs - easily the best video I've seen which explains blockchain and its derivatives and exposes much of the bullshit that this post is about
• Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing - a great article to read about the overhype of blockchain with an example of a government project which got support because it claimed it would use blockchain but as with many projects, it turns out it didn't need it
• The Big Blockchain Lie - the apparent source of the term 'glorified spreadsheet' which I'm so fond of. The author has another piece of which I found interesting and is in a similar vein to this one.
• Web3 is going just great - fun examples of "Web3" and related stuff being insane

Other

Obviously, not everyone into blockchain technology is an idiot. There are some very smart people who are into it and would recognise the grifts and scams and call them out. It's just that in my opinion, blockchain and many of the use cases that have popped up are ridiculous.

I had a section about common responses I hear to these points during arguments about cryptocurrencies but have decided to leave them out. If anyone does have some good counter arguments, I'll love to discuss them so just contact me.