This William Mougayar talk about Bitcoin and the blockchain left me stumped.
He's clearly smart, but there's something I'm not getting. He keeps saying "the blockchain's potential is not about payments." But many of his prime examples (including one he's investing in!) are using blockchain for payments, and nothing else.
Don't get me wrong, the blockchain does seem useful for payments, due to the low chance of fraud. Checks can be stolen and forged, credit cards can be falsely charged. But as he emphasizes, the current system is basically working fine; overall fraud and fees are low enough that competition is hard and there is little incentive to start using cryptocurrencies instead.
I got the sense that he was dancing around a dearth of specific ideas, and just assuming that something amazing must be buildable on this.