Before the gold rush? Or at the beginning of its broader publicity and swell of gold-hungry miners swarming into the wilderness and wading into rivers they don't fully understand? If the later, how many digital 49'ers will get swindled? How many ghost towns might be left in the wake?

Using this metaphor, it used to take specialized knowledge and tools to tap into the blockchain - command lines, servers, hashes, etc. This would be akin to the first stray miners panning for gold.

Now we've seemed to hit the phase where there is supportive infrastructure. There are people profiting on selling the pick axes, backpacks and supplies. Its almost as if Coinbase and other user-friendly entry points are positioning themselves as the Wells Fargo of the blockchain. Industries profiting off selling the pickaxes, regardless whether the fool finds their gold or not.

And if this is akin to the gold rush with an extra helping of Venture Capital greed, then the fact that it can generate so much wealth, so quickly, makes me wonder how much faster that wealth may dry up with a lot of city slickers holding now useless pickaxes.

Now, despite the doom and gloom written above, I'm optimistic about the entire space. However, I think its worth tempering that optimism with some reality, especially when bringing out the Gold Rush metaphor.