I made this Meme to help explain cryptocurrencies to noobs. Thought I'd share it here and start a discussion.
So I've been getting into cryptocurrency for the past year and a half, and one of the big issues I see with major adoption is that the general population still finds the idea of cryptocurrency esoteric and hard to understand (the recent WannaCry hack that demanded Bitcoin as payment has not helped their image, either). It's such a revolutionary concept that we don't have a lot of ways to explain it, and the ways we can explain it can be well...pretty boring.
In Japan, there's a concept called "gijinka", which is the anthropomorphization of things and brands, sometimes to give them a more accessible human-like quality. I thought something similar could be done with some of the top charting cryptocurrencies around right now.
If my portrayals are fair or accurate is ultimately up to the community to decide, but I thought it would be good to get the ball rolling and start a discussion, how would we like to portray the trending coins in the crypto world to outsiders? Here are my takes:
Once again, I don't mean to profess to be a know-it-all about Crypto, I just want to begin stirring the pot and seeing what comes to the surface. The idea of portraying cryptos as superheroes/villans came to me because I think it matches with their larger-than-life potential, and their ability to transform the human landscape in fantastic ways. That, and the immediate accessibility superheroes have to the average person.
It also brings up the question of where grey-area media comes into play in a profit-based attention community. Of course these images have been slightly modified, but does this work fall under parody law? Where do memes that incorporate intellectual property or copyrighted characters fit legally in a community where points are so closely tied to profit?
I don't have the answers, I just have this meme I made, and a lot of questions. I'm hoping the Steem community will weigh in on itself in the upcoming weeks during beta, and I'm excited to be a part of it!
-Cryptographer
I believe cryptocurrencies will start to make it into mainstream media more often in the fall with major downturn in global economies. I just saw how south americans are turning to bitcoin because of the lack of faith in their instable governments/currencies. Britain just voted to leave the EU and their currency plummeted last year. The eurozone is falling apart and that doesn't instill faith in anyone holding euro's. Japan has been in a 20 year recession with 0% interest rates and they've already embraced cryptocurrencies. China is starting to have major red flags in many parts of their economy and those billionaires are trying to find any way they can to protect their wealth. Bitcoin is just one of those methods. Gold, silver, and crypto to the moon!
You bring up some very good points. I do think that economic downturn will spur investment in cryptocurrencies...but the beauty of the technology is that I don't think you have to bet on economic collapse to see it come to fruition. Just like the phone replacing telegraph, the benefits of blockchain technology will just become more and more apparent as the tech matures.
Investing in fiat currencies so often is an investment in conflict, or the speculation of conflict. However I don't think crypto has to be that way : ).