Questions?

For some reason, at times I'm hesitant to post questions on the forums within the Steem blockchain. I feel as though I would rather furiously query DuckDuckGo or insert favorite search engine here for answers, than just simply ask the community. I never had that problem when I was a child. During my years of public schooling, I abided by the old saying "the only stupid question is the one that's never asked." In college I sought to work in groups because I felt as though everyone contributed a small part to the much larger puzzle, because no one could possibly solve it themselves individually. And, at that time, it felt as though my peers had the same way of thinking. In recent years that collective feeling of brotherly love, welcoming any inquiry one may have has changed. At least that's the vibe I get, maybe I'm the one that's changed.

Most people who are active in the steem community appear to have an above-average intelligence, which seems to be a standard throughout the entire cryptocurrency universe. Most individuals I have interacted with that are actively involved in the crypto space are smarter than the average bear. However, while many intellects exist in this "community" (which for some odd reason is starting to feel as though it was designed as a sort of sociological experiment), I believe even the most intelligent of users, portray themselves as much more knowledgeable than they truly are. I know this for a fact, because, as difficult as it is for me to admit, I am also one of those people.

Of course this is not limited to users within the Steem blockchain. Take your pick: Within Tron, Enjin, Binance Chain, any Ether spawn and every shitcoin wannabe, lies a group of know-it-alls who are far from knowing it all. This attitude is one of the reasons I believe cryptocurrency will never be truly mainstream. I've seen people get shit on for simply asking a question. Presented as foolish for inquiring about something that everyone else supposedly knows. Or my favourite within steemit- get a downvote bot sicced on you by some psycho who most likely has nothing better to do and never reveals himself or herself, and their motivation is completely unknown. Might be surprising to that psycho since he lacks the empathy and understanding to sympathize with people, but that kind of attitude towards another individual is very discouraging.

My earliest remembrance of this behavior was when I began trading Bitcoin years ago. Anytime there was a price spike, in one direction or another, very few people chatting about it ever acted surprised. Instead, they acted as if they knew it was going to occur exactly as it did in advance, and they reaped all the benefits of the recent upward or downward activity. Like they were in on some big secret that no one else knew about, even though everyone else was behaving in a similar fashion.

Everyone can't be the smartest person in the room. Everyone can't be on the winning side all the time. If that were true everyone would be a billionaire living on a terraform they grew from the sand in their backyard, and then launched into space on the rocket they built with their own two hands. I am intelligent enough to know, those same people more than likely had no idea what was going to happen. It's this attitude within the cryptocurrency community that I find despicable and I find pretentious and ridiculous. Now, while I do retain some of those character traits myself, I am not grossly oversaturating my vibe in the crypto space, in forums or social media with it, and I'm man enough to admit that I have those flaws within me. If someone wants to convince me that cryptocurrency will be adopted mainstream anytime soon, I would be more than willing to agree with you if the people within the crypto space change their attitudes a little bit.

In many circles, which noobs are first welcomed, they are then shat on by people who think they are more intelligent or more knowledgeable then the individual posting a question. This is why all of cryptocurrency only has a market capitalization of about 225 billion dollars. Now you say, ”Only 225 billion dollars? Well that seems like a lot of money." And it most definitely is. But let's take a look at other markets, let's see...Amazon and Google each individually have a market capitalization of approximately 900 billion dollars each. Microsoft and Apple are now both in the trillion-dollar club. The whole crypto world is essentially only worth what one man is worth albeit, he is the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO).

A question that might seem simple to yourself or I, and other seasoned vets in the culture, to the Everyman out there, doing things in a cookie-cutter kind of way, it seems like rocket science. Cryptocurrency is so far from their mind, even if you broke down all the benefits of it to the point where they would agree, they are still human, and they are still statistically and historically going to do the exact same thing they've done in the past. To make a change from traditional banking & storage of assets into the crypto world, or even just the digital world of value storing, takes a huge leap from the individual. Even dipping (no pun intended) their toe in to test the waters takes a lot of willingness to learn and lose everything potentially. People have to make a change, perform tasks and educate themselves in a completely different manner, and much of that learning comes from themselves. There is no real class on this world you got to dive in and navigate your way around. And with the scam artists combined with the strategically positioned "attitude landmines" filled with people having an inflated sense of self-worth and pompousness, I would venture to guess many potential new users to the system of crypto are driven to the exit.

Mass adoption starts with you, and with me, and with all the other egotistical freak shows who more than likely are scaring some new people away from the crypto world by acting like a douchebag. Think of your fellow man and maybe think of a time when you didn't know so much about cryptocurrency before succumbing to your eagerness to chastise those who aren't as well informed or have the advanced tools to learn as you or I may have. Personally speaking I'm going back to my roots. The only stupid question is the one that's never asked.

So...what is Bitcoin again?

Posted using Partiko Android