Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, ICO’s, Trust and adaptation problems,Part I
Perhaps you’ve already heard of the first bitcoin transaction ever: On 22 May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz made the first real-world transaction by buying two pizzas in Jacksonville, Florida for 10,000 BTC. That would be worth around 39 million USD/ 33 Million Euros nowadays.
First, cryptocurrencies or crypto’s, being new ways to invest in startups by buying their distributed ‘tokens’, have created a completely new sound in the world of finance.Where at first, our financial newspapers were filled with news to feed speculation about stocks, funds, and obligations, cryptocurrencies, having a market capitalization higher than a hundred billion $, are too big to be ignored. See below the position of cryptocurrencies when placed into the S&P index.
Now, the goal of an innovative product or service is to outperform the previous one. This can be for a variety of reasons, whether you need to cut costs, expand or maintain market share, access new target groups or create new leadership.
As all cryptocurrencies are being backed up by blockchain technology, a profound change is being made in the ways information is being processed. Since every institution, organization or business has documentation about parties they’re dealing with, imagine a system in which there is no Mr. Robinson from the bank who will have to check if the details you entered are either up to date or indeed yours. With blockchain technology boasting it’s ‘intermediary free’ system, this aspect of technology will change a lot of status quo and will eventually make all the old boys panic because they will be considered obsolete.
Whereas stock listed companies have already proven value, initial coin offerings (ICO’s) of cryptocurrencies have yet to prove their real value, which makes their new market of assets volatile and unpredictable.
However, still, there are many indicators of the success of a cryptocurrency by looking at three very important factors: the predicted value in terms of the problem-solving solution, the team behind the blockchain based network and foremost, the adaptation into society.
Even though that these crucial indicators should provide you with enough information, you’ll probably still gaze at your cup of coffee for knowing that you don’t know it at all.
You will not need any intermediary between your documentation or contract since blockchain tech sends and receives all the transactions in distributed data ledgers, meaning that this data can be accessed by every party if they have permission to. Also, the distributed ledger technology is facilitating the transaction across multiple computers, cross-validating it in its essence. Uhm…. what? Basically, this means that the data involved with a transaction cannot be falsified. Ever. This new form of trust should have us grabbing the bull by its horns, but it does not yet.
Cryptocurrencies can be acquired by exchanging either existing cryptocurrencies or fiat money through trading platforms such as Bittrex, Coinbase, or Kraken.
Well-known trading platforms adapting and offering the most popular cryptos, them being Bitcoin and Ethereum, come as no surprise, do they? First of all, my compliments to those companies as they are also attracting different types of investors and improve on their demographic heterogeneity in their customer database.
Consequently, there are many traders who managed to profit big time from the volatility of the market. In crypto world, a 10% daily rise is definitely not unusual. This gives more risk, but also more reward when doing it well. Indicating that getting a six-figure reward starting from as low as 100 USD/euros, is theoretically feasible.
Due to the novelty of the technology and humans being characterized as (fascinating and complex) beings of risk avoidance, the most valuable characteristic of investing in cryptocurrencies is trust. But as we say in the Netherlands, trust comes by foot and goes by the horse. This is not really helping us out when Bitcoin drops substantially, (let’s say two hundred dollars )within a single day, is it? Or am putting myself too much in a dynamic day-to-day trader position? Of course, I am.
Thus, I have put some trust into crypto. How about yourself?
Thank you so much for coming this far and reading my article.
In my next article, I’d like to share knowledge on the psychology behind innovation adoption and how cryptocurrency is a perfect case for this.
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