> outside the VC world there are a lot of people in corporates who broadly understand use cases but don't have an in-depth knowledge of the tech whose job depends on saying yes to enough innovation initiatives
Both inside and outside the VC world, I think.
You make an extremely good point about use cases: you don't have to be an expert on the tech to avoid scams as long as you're an expert on the problem it's being used for. If you can say "but we have a trusted source and we want to fix mistakes in old records, wouldn't a database be better?", you're past 90% of blockchain puffery. But if you have to say "what if there's a trusted source?", you can still get snowed by talk about all the hypothetical ways that could fail to apply.
If you're picking tech someone else will use, or investing in products you think the market will value, you can't rely on knowing the problem in detail. It's like the difference between a beta tester saying "can I buy this?" and saying "I'll bet tons of people will buy this". The first tells you what they think about the product, the second other just tells you what they think about other people.
Both inside and outside the VC world, I think.
You make an extremely good point about use cases: you don't have to be an expert on the tech to avoid scams as long as you're an expert on the problem it's being used for. If you can say "but we have a trusted source and we want to fix mistakes in old records, wouldn't a database be better?", you're past 90% of blockchain puffery. But if you have to say "what if there's a trusted source?", you can still get snowed by talk about all the hypothetical ways that could fail to apply.
If you're picking tech someone else will use, or investing in products you think the market will value, you can't rely on knowing the problem in detail. It's like the difference between a beta tester saying "can I buy this?" and saying "I'll bet tons of people will buy this". The first tells you what they think about the product, the second other just tells you what they think about other people.