We approached this work from a place of healthy, informed skepticism that immutable distributed ledgers weren’t all that interesting or useful. Nonetheless, we learn by doing, and our mission is to help others benefit from new technologies. Based on our investigations back in 2018 and our further research into the tech, we were confirmed in our understanding: whereas a private, permissioned blockchain might have some applications as a secure storage system, public, permissionless blockchains were wasteful, inefficient and disaster-prone – fundamentally flawed technology. No thank you, not for us. 

Since then a few major developments happened, by now familiar to most: 

1. Tribal wisdom spread that ‘blockchain’ is a dud, and a dangerous technology, and that anything its proponents claim it can do, we can do better with other technologies and saner practices. 
2. Quiet shelving of, or silence about, blockchain developer tools like Microsoft’s and IBM’s 
3. A new wave of VC-funded boosting of blockchain applications 
4. A necessary pushback to and debunking of the claims made by blockchain and crypto boosters, coming from a growing army of the informed, the concerned and the conscientious. We are pleased to count ourselves among their ranks. 

For historical reasons, we think it’s still interesting to read about the hands-on experience of one particular blockchain tool. Our thanks go to Malcolm and Billy, who did the original investigation. If you are so inclined, read on, with the understanding this is essentially obsolete information. 

Part 1 – Building an Ethereum Blockchain Demo

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4