The Promise of Blockchain Is a World Without Middlemen
hbr.org
hbr.org
Bitcoin "miners" are absolutely middlemen. Right now they take a cut mostly in the form of the block reward; later it is assumed they will take a cut in the form of rising transaction fees.
Anytime you have a blockchain that (A) anyone can join, (B) transports or represents value, and (C) is vulnerable to "51% attacks" the system only works when there is an equilibrium among the stored or transacted value, the compensation for miners, and the electricity that they burn doing the mining. Otherwise, the value that can be extracted with a 51% attack exceeds the cost of mounting the attack (PLUS the cost of not participating in the blockchain with that amount of hashrate, which pushes the needle somewhat but doesn't change the fact that there must exist some equilibrium point)
(last I knew there was not a breakthrough in block chain technology that protects the blockchain from being rolled back by an attacker who holds over 50% of the hashrate for an extended period of time, and that allows double spending and other unintended transactions to occur)
It's true that in principle these miners can be anyone---maybe even you---but the reality is that they are vastly, overwhelmingly ASIC miners running in places without metered electricity. They are your faceless middlemen, absolutely 100% by design leaving you without even the meager recourse your government probably requires you when you feel you're wronged by your banks or credit card companies.
I don't doubt that blockchain has the ability to upend business as usual in myriad ways, and there are a lot of really exciting projects out there that have that potential... but the examples this article used definitely don't live up to the hype of his opening paragraph.