A long story not so short — Crypto Networks, all the dirty true.

I´m being forced by my guts and mind to write a long novel about what I call Crypto Networks and everyone else call Blockchain (which is an understatement). This is going to be a book and a formal PhD thesis, but this is the TL/DR resume of the epic story!

p.s. I´m just throwing away ideas and asking friends to revise and organize. This is the V 1.5 (typos & more muscle revision)!
Motivations

Call all we know about cryptonetworks as “blockchain” is like calling a Bugatti Chyron as “Odometer”. I´ve done my thoughts here, as introduction. My main motivation is if we get a better understanding, everyone will move to build the new generations of those wonderful technologies.

Even better, we can move to build the new generation of business models on those!
Four tough scientific disciplines to understand, to know how to build it

On all the subjects I´ve learned and mastered, nothing is so complex as this new set of tools. They demand a great understanding of 4 great disciplines, each one complex as itself. So, very far to master anything here, but eager each day more to keep studying, I want to explore each one of this core fields.

A better text is in this full article here, but the resumes are:
Computer Sciences (1)

We´re talking about software. The most complex form of it, in the hardest to create form of it. So, we must to master this main science. Code is life, but real code. Donald Knut style. Not for sissies.
Networks Science — Design (2)

Also, we´re talking about computer network related system. Not so simple, we must read a little about network effects, externalities and it´s designs. After all, it´s only on networked apps we´re going to live in the new all-in-grid-matrix-environment.
Cryptography (3)

Lots of books to read, but never underestimate that cryptography (and not only coding) is the new literacy of the century. Anyone that cares minimally about such person’s online life must study this.

And pay tribute to Alan Turing. Always.
Mechanism Design (from Game Theory) (4)

John Nash was a distant and somehow romantic figure on that movie. But, game theory is mathematics, pure and mystical form. One of its hardest parts. One about which the majority of experts have no certainties, only have doubts.

And the one quantum computers can greatly help to optimize with the new deep leaning tools.

Great times ahead, stay tuned.
With all that, we´ve created a monster!

And this monster has being called THE BLOCKCHAIN!

The All Mighty!

The Revolution!

The mega blaster internet of value!

You name it… All the superlative hype mega inflated adjectives are being used. But what the hell is this? I mean, beside its most visible app, the so called crypto coins (specially the universal B symbol)?

Let´s start dissecting the Beast.
SOME RELIGIONS

Since we don´t had a generic purpose intention on the first version of what we call Blockchain, I´ve decided to forget about it and create some “IDELOLOGICAL VECTORS” to think about the tools (platforms) we´re building.

The main vector is to separate the pure OPEN and AUTONOMOUS networks (thus, TRUSTLESS, meaning, no central or even decentralized servers), the pure P2P systems, as it was stated on the original Santoshi’s paper. And we still have some strange specialized platforms. So, my 4 lines of classification are:

DATs are DECENTRALIZED AUTONOMOUS TRUSTLESS networks, meaning literally it.

a. Fully Decentralized (no single point of control, all p2p, from servers to simple players on it);

b. Autonomous (

c. Trustless (

DTP are the DISTRIBUTED TRUST PLATFORMS, not autonomous, meaning, we have a lot of control, identification and authorization on it.

a. PERMISSIONED networks is also a common term used for it.

CONSORTIONED and market segment specific platforms, where the R3 consortium is one of the most famous;
SPECIAL FEATURES SERVICE PROVIDERS, not platforms, but service providers that want to imitate the features of a cryptonetwork, but keep as intermediary. Ripple is the best example.

We are going to talk about those religions in a minute, but most of what I study are the open DATs, and its implications on business models, governance and global economy.
LOTS OF LEGO PIECES!

I´ve said a lot in this previous article (5) and there are more items. It will be revised and extended to new tools, but in resume, we have a lot of constructs.
Purpose!

To build this new revolutionary platform, one must find its purpose.

Bitcoin, the original creation (6), was a long run marathon not to create a general purpose technological platform, but a specific and very oriented solution: a decentralized crypto currency (7)!

Just note that a crypto currency is not the same as a digital currency (8), besides its history is quite similar. Today, crypto currency is a term used mostly to describe DECENTRALIZED (9) currencies, the independent ones we use with (at least in theory) without any kind of controllership, except the code it was built on (thus, open source code is also mandatory).

This is the first misunderstanding of all the talk: There´s no such thing as “the bitcoin´s blockchain is the real innovation, the currency is not important”. This is the biggest bullshit ever! The whole concept is the solution. One of its pieces can´t be a generic technology because they were built as a “black box” thing (10), not a flexible and reusable system.
First, we have lots of tools!

In order to build those black boxes, using all the main elements from 4 disciplines, we can have a huge “Lego styled toolbox”, that I´m calling ATA crypto elements. I´ve talked a lot in this old article here, some ideas are still in place, we will have a new update on it.
And then we can explore other purposes!

As ATA stands for “AUTONOMOUS TRUSTLESS ARCHITECTURES”, the main purpose specific black boxes we´ve just understood, but, exploring it´s ideas in a more “generic” way.

Think about a “generic global crypto currency ATA”, for instance, to clone a BitCoin main element into a new idea (in fact, that happened in some way to all new cryptocoins, like Dash, Monero, LiteCoin and so). This is the most famous ATA model, because everyone wants to have its own “cryptocoin” nowadays.
And after that, many other kinds of platforms were created. Following the pattern of “specific purpose first” some other attempts were done, when, finally, after 2014, a young boy started a new “brainstorm” of patterns by calling the Bitcoin platform as a simple calculator with steroids.

In the first tentative of creating a “generic use platform”, Ethereum and it´s computer concept was born (11). It was the first “computational” architecture model, after the “transactional” model used by Bitcoin.

Today, the main purposes we can see are:

· Transactional (all the so called crypto currencies only fits in this, no matter is more open — Bitcoin — or more private oriented — like zCash (12)

· Development platforms (like Ethereum first version, more and more “coding” machines were born, like Neo (13) and EOS (14))

· Supercomputing power, like Golem Network Project;

· Brute Storage or File Systems, like IPFS (15) and FileCoin (16)

· Database systems, almost an edge part, but intimately related, like BigChainDB (17)

· Some digital ID systems, like Civic

· A little about notary systems, line StoneCast and OriginalMy in Brazil;

· And so, several kinds of “infrastructure architecture” platforms were build.

And many others “purpose specific” platforms, not as much as black boxes like Bitcoin, but also without the final application defined.
With those mental models, or purpose maps, we´ve created the PLATFORMS!

With all those tools, we created generic platforms, in a huge velocity. Starting with Bitcoin, I´ve stop counting on 800 different one. My name for them are DISTRIBUTED AND AUTONOMOUS TRUSTLESS PLATFORMS, or simple, DATPs.

Too complex to explain in short (one more article coming), but they are the crypto equivalent of windows, MacOS, Unix, Android, IOS and so. The fabrics on top of what they so famous new generation of value systems will be built.

My references started to be more easy after Ethereum, the may case text of it, with more than 1.000 so called apps on top of it, plus all the ico boom phenomena.
And with platforms, we have the applications — but wait, no!

Since some platforms states for more than protocol parts, building definitions for parts that are applications (the so called Crypto Wallets are the classic cas), some “edge elements” appeared.

· Zillions of wallets applications, compatible with everything;

· Crypto Exchanges, working the interface between the crypto anarchic world and the traditional fiat currencies;

· Information Service providers, mapping the main events on blockchains,]

· And an infinite list of new actors appeared.

But the are not the promised DAO ENABLED BUSINESS MODELS and applications.
And with platforms, we have the applications — but wait, no again!!!

The main issue is cryptonetworks doesn´t build applications. Not even traditional multisided markets, AKA “platform business” like AirBNB or Uber. They are platform killer technologies, because they have THE DAO as the main philosophical inspiration.

I short for, those networks are cooperatives. The members are united to share resources and profits and costs. If all win, the network flourishes.

Besides that, a little tricky semantic detail: As the whole network (including all individuals) are the new consensual confidence center, I´ve called those networks DATNS (DISTRIBUTED AND AUTONOMOUS TRUST NETWORKS). Because, pure and simple, one can trust THE NETWORK. So it became the trust center of this cooperative system.
Breath and follow the bouncing dot:

The first vector is this cryptographic toolset, plus other traditional IT pieces, plus models plus other data sets.
The second, are the architecture “patterns” I just quoted above (with or without intention, they are not in a linear time sequence, interlacing in time they were cause and effect of each other).
The third, a category that I call DATP (distributed and autonomous TRUSTLESS platforms), the main source of all applications.]
With whose platforms, mixed networks were built, and they are now in this format. Part in the closed protocols, part on open elements in the edge of this networks. Like crypto centralized exchanges that trades all cryptocoins and tokens, for instance. I´ve called those “not in the protocol” elements, but networked interlaced, as DAPPs (or distributed apps).
The business model that those networks can provide is a kind of cooperative model, because the need a whole new level of confidence (since the total absence of ownership and a global ownership at the same time) in all the participants. As the whole network (including all individuals) are the new consensual confidence center, I call those networks DATNs (distributed and autonomous TRUST networks).

Resume for test book:

With all the tools;
Good architects think about a specific purpose and may or not take an architectural pattern;
In order to extend or create a new PLATFORM (DATP), full of tools and features to help developers and business architects to create…
DAPPs (distributed applications),
That will flourish with a new ecosystem, in a form of a pure P2P network (with or without centralized apps on the edge), called DATN.
THE PLAGUE OF FAT PROTOCOLS!

Using this mine contextualization and definition of the platforms (DATPS) in mind, from now on I will use it to talk about those constructors. What we get used to call “the blockchain of… “, like, the Ethereum´s blockchain, etc.

They were incentivized as the corner stone and center piece of the blockchain revolution. In a very famous article (in fact, a very famous investment thesis, may be the cause of ICO protocols boom in 2017) Joel Montenegro created a mantra (18): Everything valuable in this new cryptonetworked world must be in those “black boxes”, stating the FAT PROTOCOL valuation theory (18).

And then, we have a boom of projects building those protocols and fueled by huge money from ICOs last year in 2017!

As first consequence, we have a plethora of new projects, besides the old ones that keep evolving (and sometimes, using those new roadmaps and building blocks of the next generation ones).
Putting things in a better form — Platform Generations

I do believe in those protocols, but since our platforms evolved in a very faster and much more creative way since early days of Gavin Wood ´s first yellow paper as a clear protocol description (19), we´ve had a cumulative wave of what I call “platform generations”. So, my first family classification is:

G1 — The Transactional ones (currencies, mostly).

Here came bitcoin and all its clones, but also, the G1.1, G1.2 and so (LiteCoin), currencies with new and innovative governance modes (Dash, Decred and so), new security levels (Monero, zCash), and so.

On the G 1,5 we have a special note on the so-called Payment Networks like Stellar (20) and Lightening Networks (21) — by the way, the lightening network has nothing to do with the Litecoin platform and cryptocurrency.

G2 — The computational or Smart Contracts Enablers

Easy to say, Ethereum was a revolution itself, not only by the technical side, but also because of the huge involvement and community sense, it was the very first “distributed computer” model (22) and this is a huge leap on crypto platforms.

All other not only included computational models (the so called Smart Contracts), but also some mechanisms the Ethereum project build to survive in the first versions (like storage and messaging).

The G 2,5 generations are platforms that are bringing the Ethereum environment back to transactional world, specifically trying to keep the first move advantage of Bitcoini, so we have RSK (23) and qTum (24) as examples of pegged networks linking the new code ways to the old currency.

G3 — The More than machines, aka Enterprise Systems Generation

And when we thought the revolution was over, fast minded architects said it´s not enough. We must have more robust and sensational features on those platforms. And then EOS project was born (25).

Basically, the big difference (besides structural ones, around performance and governance) is the worry about specialized features (web development, compilers, inter blockchains tools and so), as much as the will to become an “cryptonetworks operating system”.

The G 3,5 ones, like CardStack (26) were much more like a specialized DAPP, trying to make it easy to users to migrate from “web thinking” to “cryptonetworks thinking”.

May be the best exemplar of this new generation is Cardano (27) team, that rebuild everything from the scratch to build a “scientific designed” crypto network platform.

G4 — The interoperability

Ok. Not enough innovation, our scientists kept putting more and more features and now targeting interoperability between all the networks.

Aion (28) was not the first, but it´s bells and whistles makes more noise.

Preeminent names, as Gavin´s Polkadot (29) and my preferred one, Cosmos (30) came just on the same pace and timing.

New players from China are more focuses, as WanChain (31) financial assets and much more important, the next versions of Neo (13) are running for it.

G5 — The CryptoNetworks Office Platforms

While we take some breath, we´ve faced a fifth generation of platforms. Much more ambitious, they want to design an entire basic ecosystem of services, beyond interoperability and providing more consistent (and protocol integrated) services, like ecommerce sets, and so.

The very powerful Chinese group Juzhen Financials (32)has strength its arms and brought to us Juzix environment.

Similarly, the Korean kereitsus worked on the Aion (33) mega project, with lots of features.

All here is an open space, we´re on the new developments and projects are in a very early stage.

G6 — The AI Enabled Generation

When you were just starting to grasp so many information, here comes the perfect marriage: Pure AI and crypto platforms!

Nothing surprising, we´ve got new players from China, starting with Matrix (34), but much more is coming (35) and even some side effect daps (36) are already doing the reverse path, using crypto network platforms to help AI business models (37)

The 0G Specialized team

There´s always a “others” group, so, we have the specialists team. Running on generic platforms, some companies picked specialized areas and build a case around it.

· IOT was the first area, with IOTA (38) team making strong first steps, but now the VeChain — another Chinese — is working hard on it (39)

· Search and pricing of it is another dimension, Nebulas (40) project is a very interesting take on it.

· Sonm is a new experiment on the SuperComputing area (41), as much as iExec (42) to cloud.

The list can go infinite, so, let´s move to next stop, above the protocol: What applications are we building on top of it?
AND WHAT ABOUT THOSE FANCY GUYS FROM CORPORATE WORLD?

Yes… it´s not enough all the things we have up, the corporate word invented the DLT (Distributed Ledger Technologies) term in 2015, and in 2016 it became the salvation (43) against the crypto currency anarco capitalist revolution (or whatever).

In short form, DLTs are not fully distributed and, even more, they are not autonomous and trustless. They are decentralized, but operate in 100% permissioned and identified networks, so the concepts are so different, we need to relearn everything.
Hyperledger Consortium (unique perspectives).

Hyperledger (44) in a short form is a Linux Foundation group, with some basic technologies and 5 frameworks (aka DLTs) on top of it.

Truly said, the best effort by now, with several of main tech providers and companies working hard on it.
R3 Corda Consortium (even more unique perspective).

The R3 consortium is a bank effort (45) consortium, that has produced a platform, called Corda (46) and it´s working on some projects with this.
Ripple Network (even more — and a little more — unique perspective).

Ripple Network is a full-service provider (47) that uses the same concepts from DLTs, operates it, but doesn’t sell technologies. Only services.
Stellar?

A little tricky and complicated thing: Some of Ripple founders had recently build a new endeavor, Stellar network AND technology platform (48).

It’s hereby classified as DLT because it´s … New! So, let´s wait and see…
ECOSYSTEMS

All this evolutionary cycle is being nurtured by several factors, but mainly by ecosystems (labs, VCs and so).
The big labs

Besides the original underdogs (Bitcoin and Ethereum) we have the educational, gov and NGOs labs (49) supporting, as usual.
The consortiums

Groups like R3 (45), Ethereum Enterprise (50) and Linux Foundation´s hyperledger (44) are big consortiuns.
University Labs

Berkley (51), MIT (52), Frankfurt (53), and others are moving fast.
AND THEN GOD LOOK AND CREATED THE DAPPS! (OPS, MAY BE NOT).

But wait! What the hell are we going to do with all those platforms?

What is the real killer app?

2018, we still have the…
TOKENOMICS

First and foremost, we´ve created value on cryptotokens and its each day easier to create even more (54).

Besides the fact we have a LOT of probable applications (55), the jokes about kitties spill over the cryptoworld and they are still there (56).
Use Cases

Long ago we had this intense debate about the value of blockchain technology (or how the DATPs would create DATNs of extreme value, as it was made on Bitcoin´s history), but so far, nothing (58).

Why´s that?

Because we need to master another level of complexity…
AND FOUR TOUGH HUMAN SCIENCES DISCIPLINES TO UNDERSTAND, TO KNOW HOW TO USE IT IN THIS BRAVE NEW WORLD!

And now, someone had created (and put some significance and terms to) a new technological monster, we´re back to the masters: Human beings and human societies.

To tame the nemesis out of a Pandora’s box full of exponential technology evolutions (59), we need to go back to 4 human study disciplines:
Organizational Psychology

First, when we talk about this new “full automation technological matrix” we must face that this Zeitgeist doesn´t fit (60). We have much more to understand at our core social nucleus (organizational life and individuals) to explore and we can´t even start grasping it. So… confusion.
Economy

Automation will lead to unemployment (61)? No one knows.

Can we create a new financial system using cryptoassets and cryptonetworks (62)? Even more complex!

We can´t even measure how those new tokens are valuable (and if they are), neither their impact (63). Too soon…

Macro and Microeconomics are going to be deeply revisited on this.
Sociology

So, automation means freedom right. For what part of humanity (64)?

What will be our GLOBAL society?

What is a society with all integrated economic, consumption, distribution and work together, even geographically separated (65)?
Anthropology

Finally, mankind is a mankind creation.

What are the new behaviors, the new zeitgeist of our new time (66)?
A TOUGH START!

It´s not only the big explosion of innovation and new techie platforms, a short term view of events.

We must to look at the long run, and the so called Blockchains are just a little brick on this huge new construct.

But it touches the very basic fabric of all our societies and culture: Trust.