The Cryptocurrency Revolution is Simply a Revolutionary Way to Acquire the Old Currency
This post contains a rant, so if you're easily offended, click away.
We've all run into them: crypto enthusiasts who say bitcoin is the future of money.
"It's hella rad, man, no central banks, no middle men, it's on the blockchain and it takes power away from the feds and places it in the hands of people!"
Some of you may be new to the scene, but when I first got into crypto some five six years ago, the gimmick around cryptocurrency was what was stated above: a revolutionary new form of currency that was not controlled by governments and central banks.
It was supposed to bring us freedom from oppressive government and their trash fiat currencies that make us all poorer in the form of inflation, and what was not stolen through inflation would be stolen through taxes.
That's why I got in and bought BTC back in the day.
What about now?
The crypto enthusiasts are still saying the same thing, but what do they mean?
In 2018, cryptocurrencies are nothing but a new form of lottery where people wish to make a profit - profit that is ultimately cashed out in fiat.
I've said it for a long time that the initial price rise of BTC was the worst thing that could happen to the cryptocurrency revolution, since it created the early bitcoin millionaires that made everybody jealous, and got them thinking that they want that, too.
So, everybody started to get in.
But not to start a revolution, no.
They got in to get rich.
And don't get me wrong, it'd be hypocritical of me to say that I haven't enjoyed the fiat profits I've made in crypto, I'm human, but honestly, what more is there to do anyway?
Crypto has become apt stomping ground for all different kinds of scammers, all in it to make a quick buck. Whenever someone praises a coin - be it bitcoin, ripple, doge, whatever - it has to do with the price going up.
It's never about the technology behind it, it's never about what the coin can do to move us forward as a species.
No; a coin is good when it enables one to get the maximum amount of fiat.
I'm a member of a Finnish crypto group on Facebook, and today finally got annoyed by the fact that each and everyone there - it seems - is simply a speculator, looking to make fiat.
Call me an elitist if you so wish, but I miss the days when people in crypto cared about a revolution. It was even more of a niche thing back then, but at least there were smart people around it.
Bitcoin is so outdated it's not even funny. What is so special about bitcoin? What can do it do besides go up in price? Nothing, not a damn thing. Development is slow to the point that it's almost nonexistent and no one cares about the problems as long as the price keeps going up.
Let's imagine bitcoin at 50k, 100k, 500k.
What changes? The amount of fiat people can get buy selling their bitcoin. Nothing else. Bitcoin is expensive and slow to use now, so take a guess how it's going to perform at 100k.
Do you see that as a currency used at your local supermarket?
"Okay, that'll be 0.0000000025 BTC! The average transaction in the bitcoin network takes about two months, so we have free coffee served on the camping site at the back of the store, enjoy your stay!"
The thing that really irritates me is the fact that a better coin already exists, and it's STEEM.
I have my issues with Steemit the website, and Steemit, INC. but STEEM the blockchain is very damn good. No thanks to Steemit, INC. at all, but it doesn't change the fact.
There's nothing BTC can do that STEEM can't, and if there's a coin that could possibly potentially bring us a crypto revolution, it'd be STEEM.
I rag on INC for not marketing STEEM, but that's not even the main issue, since the main issue is that people probably wouldn't care, anyway.
"STEEM? What's that, like 6 bucks, or som'n? Bitcoin is 16k, baby!"
"Okay, what makes it so great?"
"It's the currency of the future!"
"What are you buying with it, again?"
"Dollars!"
The other problem with crypto becoming a tech savvy lottery is the fact that what kinds of people usually buy lottery tickets?You guessed it: stupid people.
So, there you go.
That's your crypto crowd right there.
The embarrassing fact is that governments and central banks have absolutely nothing to fear from crypto currencies. Probably never will.
Man, I love your humor. 😂
Otherwise, I think that the current hype is a stage that simply can´t be skipped. BTC needs to grow beyond a certain valuation in order to be able to encompass big enough markets. And we are not there yet. BTC cannot survive long-term in a niche like it dwells in right now. It needs to grow beyond a critical size or it will disappear.
Both can still happen. However, as long as BTC remains on the growth trajectory it will produce Fiat millionairs as an unavoidable side-product. It´s human nature and noone can escape that.
The economical and societal transformation that early adopters had envisioned will follow (probably in unexpected ways) but BTC needs to grow much further before that can actually start. Fiat millionaires that arise along the way and the resulting FOMO is just a fire accelerant to get there faster. And yes, it may not be BTC that achieves that critical size first.
Cheers!
I hope you are right and we will see the change in the mind of the people. But that's the point, changing a currency system is not enough, i think peoples heads need to change.
If you are talking to people about cryptocurrency in these days, no one of them understands really much. They are not even interested for this stuff, just for the price. And i think this has to change. The people need to understand the revolutionary potential.
Usually, the mind of the people does not tend to change a lot at all. Those who are currently in crypto with the mindset of making fiat gains will keep that mindset. Most of them are anyway not interested in something like a revolution. However, that´s not key for the further expansion of crypto. It´s rather that those people who already have the right mindset but are not yet into crypto get onboard. And I don´t mean an intellectual elite but rather people for whom crypto can actually solve existential problems. Like those who suffer from being unbanked or from insanely inflationary fiat currencies. Those are the ones who will push the space forward in the end.
Like for example the Zimbabwe dollar I guess
It is great for parents who want to give their kids pocket money and know they won't just immediately run and spend it all on candy as they won't get the money before they are adults.
The most important worry from most whales right now is:
"How do I cash out?"
not "How do I change the world"
My prediction is that in 2018 also western governments will start dropping their hammers on crypto/fiat exchanges. The next G20 in April may mark the start of it. This could prove to be the biggest favour that governments can do for crypto. Exiting times ahead.
cash out slow ... like in life, move everything in stages ...
like pooping in the woods, and finding out you're squatting in ants.
"Blockchain!"
"SMART CONTRACTS!"
"rabble rabble"
"rubble rubble"
"Lambos! m00n! yolo!"
Exactly what came to my mind. This is just the point.
FOMO is what it comes down to
Verge goes to the moon!
Smart contracts, dumb people?
When virtual cats can crash a platform, it's not ready for the big time yet.
LOL, totally true and sell them to speculators too!
I think you're missing the forest for the trees. Fiat currencies ALWAYS fail. They are 1 part social engineering, 1 part highway robbery. Engineered failure.
In the past, fiat failures meant poverty and war. Then, when the people were down on their knees, the bankers gift: more fiat.
Cryptos today are Damocles Sword, hanging over the banker's heads. Each fiat debacle, each bail in or bail out, now puts the Central Banks in peril, NOT the people. Because there is an alternative --an emerging one -- in place.
I predict more cryptos will fail, than fiats have failed. Cryptos are operating in an environment of very fast evolution. We certainly dont need 1400 different kinds of coins.
BTC will also eventually fail. Maybe in 2018.
But I get your point, don't trust fiats (either) !!
Agreed. Most cryptos will fail. But there won't be world wars or a great depression because of it.
On the positive side, there will be winners. Projects that think outside the box, like, maybe, Siacoin or Decentraland or DENT. Also projects targeted at the unbanked.
Think about Humaniq bringing biometric ID and banking to the billions. The wrong people are drooling over this idea for the wrong reasons -- then again, what the controllers have pushed for in the past has become our current system. So there will be winners.
i see cryptos as an intermediate system in this world transition phase
Debt-based currencies will always cycle between boom and bust. They have to. It's built in to their nature.
"The embarrassing fact is that governments and central banks have absolutely nothing to fear from crypto currencies. Probably never will."
Yep, you pretty much hit the nail on the head.
An interesting point regarding fiat and more specifically the USD, is the fact that when crypto enthusiasts say "the dollar is worthless" or "the dollar is going to crash" they have no fuckin' clue what a hyper-inflationary USD would do to the global financial system. . I think I have an idea, and it looks like the TV show, "Walking Dead". Post WWI Germany is a good example as well. . A USD crash is not good for anyone unless you enjoy global depression. . Good post.
It will be bad, but there is no way to stop USD from falling. Get crypto & gold to survive.
Just because people predict it will happen does not mean they hope it happens (though some do) that's like saying the weatherman wants a hurricane because he said it's coming...
My words, from yesterday. That can only happen on Steemit. It's just too bad so many do not understand what that means. It's too bad the crypto-lotterytard types don't know much about entertainment and how much of a draw the arts can be. It's only billions of dollars per year. I can't seem to figure out why those marketing experts can't even see this. I'll fucking stop talking now. Who listens to a comedian anyway.... (Stadiums of people... fucking stadiums.) If they want to make money here, all they have to do is be an audience. Alright. I've said enough.
It's easy to get frustrated.
However.
Most of everything that anyone does has to do with personal gain of some sort, whether it is done for fame or fortune. That's not a bad thing. It's what motivates us -- so let's ride that wave that nature has given us.
Of course crypto is hammered on in order to cash out in fiat. But that's because fiat is the current denominator.
The whole point of crypto is to change the denominator. And we will reach a point where stuff is referenced in crypto rather than referenced in fiat. Only once we reach this point will fiat cease to have pricing power, and once it ceases to have pricing power, it will remove the ability to debauch the currency that central governments currently have.
Once this happens, the good things we saw in crypto can come to pass. Imagine governments with limited ability to debauch currency to make war!
The future is bright. Just have to have faith.
I completely agree. You rarely hear about technical developments, just price movements. People laid certain coins due to speculative price gains not new developments. The vast majority of people now interested in crypto are here because they think they can make money, nothing else. That is why shite coins which are a complete clone of existing coins can make 1000% gains in a matter of hours due to marketing not technical developments!
I believe it will take a large and sustained crash to allow the decent cryptos with valid use cases to rise to the top and to kill off all the dross!
Many of the alt coins were designed from the beginning as a payment mechanism. And many are pumping.
STEEM was not designed as a payment mechanism. And there seems to be little to no effort focused on turning it into a payment mechanism. So no reason for you to focus on a topic that STEEM will never solve.
STEEM seems to be special purpose coin, focused on social media. If you don't like that specialized niche, don't hold STEEM.
I know for a fact that ned, at least at some point, had a vision of STEEM as a global payment mechanism. I don't know about his stance now.
To be a "global payment mechanism" a coin must be sort of "price stable" .
My hope was that SBD could do the trick, but it obviously didn't .
No, money came first! Steemit is the idea of having a paying facebook I guess. It was not about a better one, it was about earning.
https://steemit.com/self-voting/@johano/that-s-why-we-need-a-self-voting-option