Honestly, what has blockchain brought us except quantum leaps in scam technologies and a ever-expanding roster of overhyped silly digicoins? Really think about this; where is it actually being applied for competitive advantage that would make it an undeniable, essential, desirable tool for either consumers or business applications? It’s had 10 years. Where is this happening?
There are some out there.
The UAE is implementing it into their government processes and expect to save a bunch on document processing. They're also implementing it in their healthcare system to improve payments and medical record storage.
I know of another that is focused on logistics and supply chain solutions. Product tracking, cross-border shipments, anti-counterfeiting in countries where that is a major problem. They actually have a fair number of companies who they are working with. There are a couple in that space.
Another applying it to insurance to improve claims, payments, coverage determinations via smart contracts. They are already working with a fair number of hospitals and insurers in their market
Another looking to provide a solution that can easily connect and convert between different fiat currencies as a behind-the-scenes payment processor. They're already processing payments for places like fast food restaurants and airlines and are flipping that over to a blockchain solution once finished.
Another using it to improve the trade of renewable energy, particularly in microgrids, where logistics were difficult before.
All but the UAE one have (or will have once live) a native cryptocurrency, but I think "currency" is misnomer in those cases (actually, a lot of cases in crypto). No one is going to the store to pay with those currencies. That isn't the intent. The currency is used within the system to pay to use the network and/or to provide incentive to investors/individuals to take part in the decentralized network. It isn't really a stock because you don't own a part the company, but you do retain rights to some portion of network use fees for having stake in the network. Investing in any of those are still highly speculative. You are speculating that those solutions will be adopted with enough scale that you will be paid off with a stream of passive income, not all that dissimilar to dividends.
As far as the "10 years" thing, most of the smart contract work which those are building off of didn't really start development until a few years ago. The development of the particular solutions above didn't start until the last year or two. They are starting to roll out now. It doesn't happen overnight.
I agree that a currency for currency's stake (like bitcoin) doesn't provide any value. Many of the critiques of crypto as a whole are really critiques of bitcoin and its clones. There is at least some evidence that the instances I listed above do have value, at least there are real-life companies who feel that way and have partnerships to be users of the technology.
We'll see though. It might work. It might fail. I'm interested in keeping up with it.