Inventor and entrepreneur Reggie Middleton joined Kurt Wuckert Jr. on the latest CoinGeek Weekly Livestream to discuss blockchain utility, patents, intellectual property (IP), decentralized finance (Defi), and many other interesting topics.
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Wuckert’s weekly CoinGeek post
Wuckert usually pens a weekly article on CoinGeek; this week, it was about the nature of the data economy. He talks about Marc Andreessen and his recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast, noting how he has morphed from a West Coast liberal into a Trump supporter talking about the dangers of big tech. Check out the article, Marc Andreessen is a hypocrite, now.
Middleton’s background and Bitcoin story
Before getting into the blockchain space, Middleton worked in finance. He understands the need for regulations and the importance of the law in making this sector work globally, and he holds multiple patents for what he considers foundational technology in the space.
During his time in finance, Middleton researched investments when someone brought Bitcoin to him. Like so many others, he dismissed it at first, but when the same person came back to him again a few times, he decided to look into it properly in 2013.
After checking out the Bitcoin Wiki and white paper, his “jaw dropped” because he understood the implications. This was peer-to-peer technology with no counterparty risks, and he knew the implications, thanks to his unique background in finance and enthusiasm for technology. While Bitcoin script is relatively simple, you can do a lot more with it than you can with a dollar bill, he says.
Circumventing the gatekeepers
Middleton says that Bitcoin was a way to circumvent the gatekeepers, acknowledging that it has changed since then. Sadly, it’s now owned by the same gatekeepers, but the technology is being adopted rapidly. Arguably, even the Federal Reserve is using it, and there have been endless stories in the last few years of banks and institutions adopting blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT).
Wuckert agrees that the bad guys took over Bitcoin between 2015 and 2017. He laments it as one of the most significant squandered opportunities of his lifetime. However, all is not lost because the tech is still here, and the genie can’t be put back in the bottle. Eventually, something will come along that causes mass adoption, and there will be no stopping it.
Middleton says the spark has already ignited, and a lot is happening behind the scenes. Big players are interested in trading the assets, but playing the Wall Street game is taking your eyes off the prize, which is IP, patents, and other value creation.
IP and enforcement
Middleton acknowledges that nChain is a powerful player with valuable IP. Citing one example, he encourages viewers to look into multi-party computation, noting that exchanges like Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) and others use it for cold storage. nChain has a patent on this, and it’s foundational.
“You only need one,” he says, giving Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Pagerank or Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) one-click buy patents as examples.
Middleton dismisses those who say everything should be open-source, noting that they often don’t practice what they preach. IP allows those who have spent lots of time and energy to protect their investments so big players don’t just come along, take their ideas, and profit from them.
What’s next? Middleton says the technology will be adopted, e.g., by stock exchanges running on ledgers while people trade tokenized stocks. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will also get another look, and their utility will be discovered. Everybody is adopting the technology now, and many valuable applications will emerge in the next few years.
To hear more about patent litigation, the battle of the gatekeepers, and what’s going on behind the scenes, check out the live stream now.
Watch: The future of ownership digital—Insights from Buzzmint’s Charles Symons
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