Is it possible to have decentralized service but no cryptocurrency?

[lifeinwinter]

Hello all,

I have a beginner's question...feel free to correct me if I understand the wrong way.

With gouvernment regulations and bans in ICOs/cryptocurrency in some countries, I was wondering, is it possible that one day, cryptocurrency could no longer be mined nor used anywhere at all? But, as the decentralized technology is useful, we would still be using the technology.

Or it's totally impossible. Blockchain and cryptocurreny, on can not live without the other?

Thank you guys.

[Beau Mathieson]

Hello ifeinwinter,

I doubt that one day, cryptocurrencies will just banish of the side of the earth.  In fact, the South Korea Finance Minister stated this in a statement early february: "For open-source blockchain networks, cryptocurrencies are necessary as incentives for individuals to participate in the network".  As to whether blockchain technologies can exist without cryptocurrencies, absolutely. The coins minted through mining and staking are used to incentivise people to participate in the network and to give over their processing power to verify transactions. The only practical applications for this would be for uses in private & permissioned blockchains as business don't need to be incentivised for their own ledger.  I hope that gives you a basic insight into your question.

Kind regards,
Beau Mathieson       

[ManaMan]

Hello all,

I have a beginner's question...feel free to correct me if I understand the wrong way.

With gouvernment regulations and bans in ICOs/cryptocurrency in some countries, I was wondering, is it possible that one day, cryptocurrency could no longer be mined nor used anywhere at all? But, as the decentralized technology is useful, we would still be using the technology.

Or it's totally impossible. Blockchain and cryptocurreny, on can not live without the other?

Thank you guys.

Of course it is possible to have decentralized service - look at torrents for instance how long have they sustained. Because it is decentralized it is really hard to shut it down and thus it will be nearly impossible to stop cryptocurrency but we can't deny the fact that some countries might ban it and not allow their use. You have probably heard about blockchain technology all over the place now which tells us that decentralized blockcahin is being talked and implemented in many places. Decentralization exists from the moment internet was born with p2p connections, but now we will see more of them as now we have good protocol to run trust less services either it be built on blockchain or DAG or some other structure occurs. What satoshi gave us is view into world of much more possibilities that not many people imagined will exist.