Are People Starting to Wake Up to Blockchain Technology?
I saw this CNBC article shared on Facebook this morning (Bitcoin hits $1,600 for the first time and one investor says it could rally to $4,000 in a few months) and one thing that struck me was the focus of the video in the article. It wasn't about currency speculation as much as explaining blockchain technology as a globally accessible database anyone can access.
Not only that, the video in the article touched on how major corporations can save billions with this technology and are already investing millions in it right now. The poor and unbanked along with those in destabilized nation states were also highlighted.
I know we're in an information bubble. Since many of us talk about cryptocurrency so often, the people around us mostly get it. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves how small our bubbles are. I was at a party a couple weeks ago and a friend of mine who isn't on social media said, "What's bitcoin?" when I started talking about it. It was a bit of a shock. How could someone today not know what bitcoin is? Same thing happened when a friend shared a Facebook post about buying some Ethereum for his children. His friends also asked, "What's cryptocurrency?"
Those of us who understand (or have even heard of) blockchain technology are in a very small information bubble. As quickly as information is spreading in today's networked world, we also have to recognize it will take time. The concept of money and value have been around for a very long time, some argue as long as our species first started collaborating, trading, and specializing. To redefine (or refine) that concept is no easy task.
Mainstream articles like this give me hope that the shift is happening. There's still a bit of "bad people use bitcoin" fear mongering thrown in, but most of the article and video in it were very positive. There have been 129 bitcoin obituaries already. They can no longer make fun of it. They have been fighting with regulations, but they already know that's a losing game based on the music industry. I think they are transitioning to "if you can't beat them, join them" territory. Now they must adapt to survive.
It's an exciting time to be involved in crypto. I hope my content helps you and others join the fun.
Some related posts you may find helpful:
- The Best Explanation of a Blockchain I've Ever Seen
- The Promise of the Blockchain by Vinay Gupta
- The Cryptocurrency Bank Spreadsheet
- A Simple Example of Shorting the U.S. Dollar With BitShares
- Steemit: Putting the Social Back into Social Media
I'm assuming they'll paint is as "shady" money used by identity thieves and pedophiles. I hope not, but they probably will.
Anyway, upvoted
@shayne
They usually do. I've been reading/watching mainstream news coverage of bitcoin since the beginning of 2013. It seems to me the narrative if shifting.
Yeah, slowly it is. But there's still that "OH, YOU MUST BE DOING ILLEGAL BAD STUFF SINCE YOU ARE INTO CRYPTOCURRENCY."
It's more like "No, I just know what the future can hold in terms of blockchain tech and society. It's the future. Just because someone has a knife doesn't make them a murderer. Sure, you can stab and kill someone with it, but you can also cut your favorite sandwich in half with it and share it with someone you love."
I was telling my grandpa about steemit yesterday and his question was "Is someone going to arrest you?"
Hahah :D
i agree with lukestokes. i thought it was a fad but the more i learned about cryptos the more it makes sense.
Value we get to control ourselves is the future. The future is decentralized.
I still get people saying to me. "Is that legal?"
That is excellent news :)
Let them. As they slander Bitcoin, we remain right where we need to be and we will be busy becoming fucking rich. These slime balls, on the other hand, will get really fucking busy really soon with being dragged out of their fucked up, fiat-filled world of coercion, 'cause it's going down. Hard. We will be the ones on top then. Not them. Fuck 'em.
Same thing happens to me all the time. I expect it when I mention other cryptocurrency like steem, dash, eth, etc, but when someone asks me what bitcoin is, it's sort of baffling. Good news that the information is spreading, though.
I think it is. Not just good news that the information is spreading, but good news the good news about this information is spreading. :)
When the good news start spreading is usually when the mania hits and price highs are near in my experience.
I remember watching the bitcoin market rally on almost only "bad" news when it was sub $100 or so: To me this signaled a good time to buy, because imagine when the good news hit...
You're right though. It's great the information is getting out there.
Well being that I am a newbie to cryptocurrency and to all coins bit (see?), i agree that your bubble is a lot smaller than those in it might think. It is growing as im seeing more and more friends starting to ask questions and look into it. Ive learned a lot in the past week or so and look forward to learning more. Its only took me 4 years to even know what a bitcoin was. :)
Thanks for your posts, they help educate the masses (which benefits everyone) a lot!
Thanks Josh! I'm really glad to know I might be making a small difference somewhere. And to think, it only took you seeing my Facebook posts for four years to get on board. :)
I hate to be that guy, but "losing", not "loosing". Sorry!
Thank you! Don't hate to be that guy. I greatly appreciate it! Just fixed it.
We are at the cusp of mainstream adoption. A year from now if this momentum keeps up we will all be set for life.
You may be right. I hope we also give to those in need around us along the way. I've had a couple friends of mine lately describe bitcoin as "built on greed" and I'm trying to show them how it's much less greed-fueled than the FED notes in their wallets right now.
.........."Like the choice between competing political institutions, that between competing paradigms proves to be a choice between fundamentally incompatible modes of community life. Paradigmatic differences cannot be reconciled. When paradigms enter into a debate about fundamental questions and paradigm choice, each group uses its own paradigm to argue in that paradigm's defence The result is a circularity and inability to share a universe of discourse. A successful new paradigm permits predictions that are different from those derived from its predecessor . That difference could not occur if the two were logically compatible. In the process of being assimilated, the second must displace the first.
Consequently, the assimilation of either a new sort of phenomenon or a new scientific theory must demand the rejection of an older paradigm . If this were not so, scientific development would be genuinely cumulative. Normal research is cumulative, but not scientific revolution. New paradigms arise with destructive changes in beliefs about nature.
Consequently, "the normal-scientific tradition that emerges from a scientific revolution is not only incompatible but often actually incommensurable with that which has gone before". In the circular argument that results from this conversation, each paradigm will satisfy more or less the criteria that it dictates for itself, and fall short of a few of those dictated by its opponent. Since no two paradigms leave all the same problems unsolved, paradigm debates always involve the question: Which problems is it more significant to have solved? In the final analysis, this involves a question of values that lie outside of normal science altogether. It is this recourse to external criteria that most obviously makes paradigm debates revolutionary........."
~Thomas Kuhn 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' 1962
In my near surroundings, I have not felt a change yet. I hope this will change soon.
I feel somewhat happy that I told most friends and family members about crypto at least once so when this things skyrockets I feel a little less guilty.
I'm thankful I can now point to a history of posts since 2013 pleading with people to get in on this. :)
I think that they are. FINALLY.
I've been getting hit up non-stop by friends and family lately. They've always been skeptical about my ranting and raving about cryptocurrency and blockchain tech until recently. I've been toying with cryptocurrency and distributed computing since it all began and they're never wanted to know anything about it despite me always talking about it like a lunatic.
Now out of nowhere, they all want help buying a nest egg of bitcoin . . .
Reminds me of the days it mooned to $1,200. It seemed like everyone was interested. It will be interesting to see where this goes in the next 5-10 years.
It's gonna be an assload, for sure. Bitcoin is deflationary, so as more people horde, lose wallets, difficulty rises, etc. it will in turn become more scarce, driving up price.
It has nowhere to go but up. It's the papaw of Cryptocurrency, the gold standard, the safe bet.
Stepping back and taking the 50,000-foot overview, the thing I hope and pray for is that corporate entities and organizations step in and see the benefits of blockchain technology and invest themselves in it before banks and governments come in and try to regulate and prohibit cryptos as a "threat" to the conventional economy of the world.
I'm not saying cryptos wouldn't survive such efforts... just suggesting that if a lot of corporate "power players" are already on the blockchain bandwagon it's going to be a lot harder for government and regulatory intervention to to have real teeth. It's one thing to regulate a $50 billion "alt economy" to its knees... quite something else to regulate cryptos if the market cap were $5 trillion. Few legislators would want that much blood on their hands...
I already have experienced the edges of interference, here in Washington state... my Poloniex account was deactivated because the state is making it super hard for crypto exchanges here (with regulations and fees) because "someone" determined that many in the marijuana industry (legal here) were using BTC and alt coins as a way to bypass fees and taxes.
You're right, patience is essential. The most recent parallel I can think of is called "The Internet." When I first got email and online access (1993) it was considered a strange hangout for "extremely nerdy geeks and creepy pedophiles." I would say it was a good TEN years before the "creepy" image faded in the background and a phrase like "my mom is on the Internet" became commonplace... and it really didn't "go big" till Facebook got serious traction.
I talk to my friends about Bitcoin. Some say "Oh Bitcoin that is imaginary money!" Another business man when I posed the question "What currency grew by some %120 last year?" Laughed at me when I told him it was Bitcoin. I am amazed that even when you show people the public blockchain at work they still scoff at it. Then yesterday one of the main German bank Bundesbank warned its users against Bitcoin’s volatility rate, expressing its concerns over market instability. As if there is no volatility in Fiat money! Interesting times and I am glad to be on the wave surfing the blockchain. Full article regarding the bank can be found here https://cointelegraph.com/news/german-bank-warns-users-against-bitcoins-instability-and-volatility
Wipro, an IT company receives email threat of $100 million in bitcoin as ransom. Using this news, media is projecting bitcoin as money for scammers, they are hiding the true facts.
Geez. First I've heard about this one or the use of biotoxins in a threat. Disgusting. I hope they find those responsible for causing this harm and seek restitution.