RE: The "Coinbase Effect"
Absolutely. I actually wrote an article about how coins with low nominal value, ie ripple, cardano, etc, experienced the largest % returns the past week. Now since Litecoin is inching towards $300, it hasn't been able to experience the same network effect from the people looking to getting in on low (nominally) priced coins, but I totally get what you mean.
Hey, that's exactly how problems are identified and eventually solved. By kicking the can and having some conversation, haha. You know what's interesting is that since everything is on the blockchain, you could theoretically track down how capital from new ETH, BTC, LTC addresses (likely from fiat gateways) disseminate/flows into other coins, whether pumps n dumps in certain coins basically act as a lever for buying more secure coins like ETH or BTC. That would be quite the read!
Also! The other macro economic factor I've thought about in the past is inflation driven by crypto currencies. With regular fiat, we experience inflation when more money is printed because fiat is 100% liquid and the quantity circulated can affect the price of what goods/services can command.
While cryptos can technically buy goods/services, there aren't enough enterprises which readily accept crypto currencies to affect inflation that much. As it stands, crypto is a pretty illiquid asset and volatile at that! So what I wan't to know, as the crypto space develops, prices normalize, and enterprises begin opening their payment portals to a cryptocurrency option, how will this affect worldwide CPI? What affect will airdrops, forks, and ICO's have on inflation as well?
This was definitely already on my list. For instance Overstock.com selects to allow bitcoin, and Overstock's value goes up. However, what does the value of BTC (the accepted currency) do, and then what about the ripple effects on cryptocurrency as a whole. Is this exponential decay function, or perhaps logarthimic and you take steps away from bitcoin. Maybe it is a step function.
I need a mathematician.
I LOVE THIS IDEA! I'll get through the process faster as soon as i can bank enough to quit my day job.... wah wahhh. Still, Going to pursue. Thanks @orangesphere