Thanks, that's a good short description. I'd like to find a list of concrete examples of why ether will be so important. Do you know of such a list? I'll keep poking around and post a link if I find one.
All roads lead to veen There are a number of nerdy pages listing "use cases" and the like but there's a lot of blind men & elephants. Fundamentally, if it can be done on the internet, with a bank, or involving programming (or all three)it can be done on Ethereum instead of on the internet, with a bank or with programming which means the sky's the limit. Examples I've used include AirBnB - the EVM knows the MAC address of your phone and my smart lock so when you walk up my driveway it escrows $500 and withdraws $100 from your wallet and unlocks my door, then it releases that $500 when I verify you didn't trash my house. You can use transit - My MAC pops up on the network at Union Station and because I've got a contract with LA Metro the turnstile opens. Then when it shows up at Hollywood & Highland it deducts $1.75. I find it's easier to come up with examples on the fly than point at something mythical on the horizon. It makes things far more relatable.