If you ignore economics; blockchains remain mega-cool.<p>Unfortunately, this is not possible in the real world where real money is required to operate a blockchain node.<p>Without incentive, people won't participate. Without adequate participation, security and reliability become suspect. Funding/incentive from a "centralized" source breaks the entire trust concept of blockchain. You're back to square one --- trusting a single actor. If you're willing to do this, blockchain becomes irrelevant --- there are simpler, cheaper, more conventional alternatives available to achieve the same result.<p>The only reasonable way to achieve the blockchain dream --- to simultaneously escape the bounds of centralized trust and incentivize blockchain participation --- is by inventing money --- crypto. And this leads down a different "mega-cool" rabbit hole that we won't go into at this time.