[Uptrenda]

All of your examples are trivial and deal with every day concepts. Blockchain technology intersects cryptography, computer science, government, politics, economics, finance, information security, probably even sociology and philosophy. It's multi-disciplinary.

The idea that something needs to be simple to be legitimate is not a good one. Some things simply are complex and to say otherwise is to over-simplify them. Or reductionist. Much of the ground work requires questioning assumptions that people are already familiar with and accepted as true. Like the trust assumption in banking.

I can tell you first hand that when I pitched my blockchain startup back in 2013 the very first stumbling block I had was even getting people to understand Bitcoin. So go ahead and tell me that a large, in-depth field must mean its invalid. I think that's a silly idea.

[theamk]

Can you give examples of things which are "simply are complex and to say otherwise is to over-simplify them" and that are not either blockchain or snake oil?

Note that internal operation does not really matter, only applications do; I might have no idea how CRISP/CAS works, but I can totally understand some of its applications and why people call it revolutionary.

[Uptrenda]

Neuropsychopharmacology

Medicine

Higher level mathematics

Material science

Chemical engineering

...

There are specialized journals for blockchain tech now.

Maybe 'diverse' would be a better word than 'complex' for blockchain tech because projects aren't all financial. The OP made the claim that he couldn't think of use-cases for smart contracts. The problem isn't that there are no use-cases but that there are too many. What use-cases are there for a language for structuring trust when it can touch so many areas?

Every time we have these threads ignoramuses wander in and expect those in the industry to justify their whole field and area of expertise. Even though from their questions the only thing they know about the industry comes from news headlines and memes. Yet this is what passes for discussion around here. They expect to be spoon fed an entire area of knowledge they know nothing about. And when failing to instantly grasp the years of knowledge people have in this area they declare that it doesn't exist.

I'm over it. Pick up a book.

[DropInIn]

Every single one of those listed has a simple description of its use case.

Every, single, one.