I almost feel guilty for not adding text to the top. However, I genuinely LOL'd here: We are pretty much on the same page. Ethereum is all kinds of useful, and will only become more so, but IMO the potential for Ethereum to enslave is real too. The blockchain is not going to be implemented from a clean slate. At best (worst), we are going to get a global depression out of our current financial situation. Ethereum is going to inherit the sins of this system, and only over a long time will our society reflect some sort of new possibility. I have a fondness for essays like this that try to patch together big ideas, but I also found it interesting because Tumlos does Business Development and Strategy for ConsenSys. They are working with Ubuntu to get Ethereum running on every Ubuntu phone, and with Microsoft to provide Ethereum as a service on Azure. IMO the fact that Ethereum can draw people with such visions is good evidence of its potential. Although I see his sequence of events as extremely improbable, I do see an alternate economy evolving that does not jive with 1099's and W2s, and I see it coming fast. A global recession isn't going to change that outcome very much. I just posted this: Which is going to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a wedgie. Funny, MS providing decentralized options as a service. Here in 2016, we talk about how much USD a BTC or ETH is worth. The Central Banks are trying to burn the fiat in your bank account, and fiat has no proof of existence/ownership. As you said, they are turning over more and more mattresses. It might happen before it, but if a reserve currency experiences bail ins, we are going to start talking about how much ETH or BTC a USD is worth. Part of the Core/Classic battle in bitcoin is fueled by this. Regardless of where Bitcoin Core's small block roadmap comes from, I've come to the conclusion that many small block supporters are modern gold bugs that see the ability to keep bitcoin light as a matter of long-term survival. Many of them don't care if bitcoin can scale. They don't see it as a payment system. They might be right. That's one reason why I have not converted all of my BTC to ETH.The Great Humungus is eating Alpo out of a hubcap and you're launching an Ethereum onboarding company on your Ubuntu phone.
And in their world, the most useful thing about cryptocurrency is the fact that it doesn't charge them a fee for existing.
Personally, I think change will be so gradual as to be invisible. Most people don't know that Apple Pay and Square are only possible because of the Check 21 Act of 2003. It was a good 8 years before that mattered to anyone for reasons other than they didn't get paper checks with their statements anymore. For consumers, it's pretty much "whoa! I can take a picture of my checks!" but for interstate commerce it kind of blows a hole in the whole ACH network.