Blockchain not for every case

Not all processes need an economy or a payments system, or peer-to-peer exchange, or decentralization, or robust public record keeping. Further, the scale of operations is a relevant factor, because it might not make sense to have every tiny microtransaction recorded on a public blockchain.

In the farther future, different classes of blockchains for different kinds of applications could be optimized. Maybe there could be daily purchase blockchains for the grocery store purchases, and others for large assets items like real estate and automobiles.

More stridently different functionality is needed for noneconomic-market blockchains, for government services, intellectual property registration, notary services, science activities, and health-record keeping. The key question is distinguishing the economic principles needed for the different range of functions with which blockchain technology could be helpful.

However, not every operation is one of value registration and Exchange in a sequential, public, and distributed data storage. And we do not want to reduce the qualitative aspects of life to a purely and nakedly economic situation.

The idea of a remunerative coin and making the economics of situations more explicit is welcome in some ways but repugnant in others. However, the broader conceptualization of economy evoked by this technology invites a new consideration of the notions of transfer, exchange, and acknowledgment that is deeply qualitative and could persist even as blockchain-enabled features are not applied.