Source: https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/computers-that-make-commitments/ #processed
Notes
Blockchains are computers that make commitments, meaning there are programmed rules.
Commitments can be useful in finance. Bitcoin, for example, has a rule, making a commitment, which says only 21 million bitcoins can ever be created.
These rules enable developers to make a commitment to the protocol too, and to get tokens as a reward, because the user knows the rules will not change on them like with Web2 protocols.
Theoretically, a blockchain can make a commitment like a government makes a commitment with for example monetary scarcity from precious metals (now, of course, the govt. prints an unlimited amount of money.)
Blockchains give 3rd party developers trust. Regain trust that they lost in Web3.
Quotes
A game theoretic mechanism — a so-called consensus mechanism — makes blockchains resilient to modifications to their underlying physical components, effectively making them resilient to human intervention.
Computers that make commitments can be useful in finance. The most famous example of this is Bitcoin, which makes various commitments, including that there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins, a commitment that makes bitcoins scarce and therefore capable of being valuable. Without a blockchain, this commitment could have been made by a person or a business, but it is unlikely that other people would have really trusted that commitment, since people and businesses change their minds all the time
Prior to Bitcoin, besides precious metals which are naturally scarce, the only credible commitments to monetary scarcity came from governments.
Third-party developers can safely invest in their businesses knowing that the rules are baked into the network and can’t change, protecting them from platform risk. Using the financial features of blockchains, users and developers can receive tokens in order to participate in the upside of the network as it grows.
Blockchains have arrived at an opportune time. Internet services have become central to our economic, political, and cultural lives, yet the trust between users and the people who run these services is breaking down. At the same time, industries like finance that have traditionally depended on trust have resisted modernization. The next few years will be exciting — we are only beginning to explore the idea maze unlocked by this new capability of computers.