[retrocryptid]

Blockchain technologies are interesting in their own right as the application of math to a perceived problem. But they're even more interesting in how a technology can be hyped beyond belief. And the sociological aspects of how easy it was to convince people to part with their money for a dubious "investment."

I think to understand the human / sociological aspects, you should grok the underlying tech, even if you don't plan to use it. Maybe not at a detailed implementation level. Like understanding how people use ETH to spin up their own coins is a good level of abstraction to understand. (i.e.-why are ETH and BTC different.)

And I would love for all the eCos / Mark Miller / Nick Szabo e-contracts stuff to be useful someday.