We are used to the idea of a ‘Killer App‘, that one application that drives the adoption of a new technology. That one capability that just can’t be replicated easily elsewhere.
In the early days of personal computing it was the spreadsheet which drove adoption of the Apple II. Later Word, Excel and Powerpoint played similar roles in the Windows ecosystem, and Adobe had products like Pagemaker that drove adoption of the Macintosh in the publishing world.
For BlackBerry it was email until Apple revolutionised what it meant to have a general purpose computer on you at all times which happened to provide better email, plus messaging, music and the ‘best’ camera (the one you have with you).
So what’s the killer app for Blockchain technology? For Bitcoin it’s arguably already here in the shape of a reserve currency role for the crypto ecosystem (try to find a more liquid trade pair than BTC-XXX on any exchange globally), but what is for other blockchains?
It may be DeFi, and it certainly looks as if a lot of people are betting in that direction given activity in the space. Central Bank Digital Currencies may be another promising area. Remittences have been discussed for a long time but haven’t yet captured wide attention, perhaps as they only apply to a section of cross border value flows.
Another area that could be very interesting is Carbon capture and credits which feels like it could be a very good fit for the native token and governance capabilities Cardano will offer.
Imagine if organisations that provide a carbon capture service (via any mechanism from high tech capture and storage in exhausted gas fields, to low tech tree planting) had a way to issue tokens for each unit of carbon captured according to agreed rules, that were governed and assured by a central body (like the UN for example with support from the Cardano Foundation).
That way the overall token circulation could be set in accordance with the Paris Climate agreement or other treaties. Tokens could be traded as a secondary market, emitters could purchase to offset emissions, environmental charities could purchase in order to remove CO2 permanently from circulation, and businesses and carbon offset schemes would have a readily available and accurate price in order to structure their investments.
The existing carbon trading market would mature, move out of direct central government control, and help us solve the problem automatically.