I was in YC during the same time as Coinbase (where I now work), and personally, I think cryptocurrencies are transformational. Having grown up during the Internet era and hearing from my parents about the Mainframe -> PC era, use cases and viable businesses take time. Even founders in early, disruptive spaces have a hard time figuring out the use cases.

Here's my own thoughts on why rational people — and media — get disruptive markets (like crypto) wrong:

> As someone who had worked in banking and and microfinance, I got excited about the idea of credible digital scarcity, programmable money, and open financial systems. I didn’t quite know the use cases that would follow, but it was clear to me that the world would never be the same.

> Mostly though, everyone I respected thought cryptocurrencies were stupid. One MBA classmate haughtily wrote off cryptocurrencies as only useful for drugs and pornography. My old management consulting friends—all from elite American universities—pooh poohed Bitcoin and other open cryptocurrencies as they fixated on the needs of their lucrative banking clients. The vast majority of successful, rational people disdained everything about cryptocurrency.

https://www.nemil.com/crypto/rationally-irrational.html