The Forks of Blockchain Development and the Essence of Decentralized Assets

In the development process of Blockchain technology, a fork between centralization and decentralization has emerged. This stems from the different emphases of the two core concepts: reliability and usability. Usability focuses on solving the issues of quick onboarding and ease of use, while reliability is committed to expanding the boundaries of human knowledge and redefining trust mechanisms. The birth of Bitcoin can be seen as the starting point of this process, while Ethereum further develops on this foundation.

However, Ethereum faces some challenges in practical applications. To improve usability, some projects choose to compromise towards decentralization, forming variations such as consortium chains. This fork reflects the market's demand for more efficient systems.

In the field of Blockchain, the verification mechanism is the most critical and challenging aspect. Currently, there are three main verification methods: collateral, additive games, and built-in efficient market assumptions. However, even Bitcoin has not completely resolved the verification incentive issue. This fundamental problem affects the development direction of the entire industry.

Decentralized assets are an important application of Blockchain technology. Compared with traditional assets, decentralized assets have a unique risk-return structure. From an information theory perspective, it performs well in eliminating uncertainty. Although Bitcoin's price is highly volatile, the transparency of its underlying data results in an overall uncertainty lower than that of many traditional financial assets.

Projects like Bitcoin are essentially building non-cooperative game systems. Such systems do not require the establishment of mutual trust but achieve value transfer through a pricing exchange mechanism. In this system, participants make autonomous decisions based on their own conditions, ultimately reaching a state of general equilibrium.

Decentralized finance ( DeFi ) services are another important application direction of Blockchain technology. However, how to replicate traditional financial services in a decentralized environment while achieving value capture and accumulation remains a problem to be solved. Future development needs to fully consider value capture and competitive strategy from the very beginning of service design.

Overall, blockchain technology is reshaping our understanding of trust, value, and financial services. Despite facing numerous challenges, its potential is immense and is expected to profoundly change the global economic landscape in the future.