THE FUTURE - A Blockchain for EveryoneThe number of coins in existence (and also the number that have ever existed) has got me thinking and speculating about blockchains. Recently I've been speculating on the possibility of a blockchain (or even blockchains) for everyone, for personal use. I've been wondering if the blockchain could evolve to become something like an email address, but an email address with a magnitude of difference. So, in effect, people could have personal blockchain addresses. Not an address (or series of addresses) on a blockchain, but entire personal blockchains with their own public addresses.
The blockchain could then be used to store all personal data e.g documents, pics, music, bookmarks, letters, medical history, search results etc. Compression technology could be used to reduce the size of items stored on the blockchain. Though blockchains can bloat, the size of a personal blockchain would be nothing compared to other items we store for personal use. Forget hard disks or cloud drives, blockdrives will be global, personal, anonymous, secure, and shareable, simultaneously. Every item will be bookmarked and indexed with an associated block number and stored in the blockchain's own local sidechain.
No-one need run their own wallet or even think about how to keep their blockchains sync'd, in the same way that people don't run their own mailservers, or worry about whether their email address(es) will be sync'd. If it's profitable to host blockchains (in the same way it's profitable to host email accounts) then services will spring up to accommodate these new personal blockchains.
Merchants, advertisers, and other services will all have to operate sidechains and fight for our business (i.e the blockchain owners decide if a sidechain has access to their blockchain, or blockchains). Of course, the other services will also run their own blockchains, once again, in the same way that all organizations also have their own email addresses.
So, what happens to the personal currencies on all these personal blockchains? Who knows? Maybe employers will buy them off individuals rather than paying in return for labour. Maybe employers/services will operate sidechains that pump value into personal blockchains (somehow). Maybe personal blockchains start with a zero sum and owners have to tout existing sidechain holders for currency/value (e.g employers/friends/family/services). And then a mass of profitable background crypto exchanges arise, facilitating the free flow of all these different personal currencies around the globe, finally offering an instantaneous global currency service that knows no boundary.
By that time, of course, we've colonized Mars and my personal butler is a wookie.
Just a thought...