Sunday Ramble: An Unexpected Conversation about Cryptos... with a Young Bankster steemCreated with Sketch.

in #bitcoin5 years ago

As of late, I have been keeping an eye on our local public — basically the people I come into contact with on a daily basis — to "feel out" the awareness of, and sentiments about, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies.

I have some decent "raw material" as a result of having a retail space in what is essentially a "tourist trap" within striking distance of Seattle, a metropolis with some 3.5 million people.

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Signs of spring

I do this because it is interesting to me in the same way "people watching" was interesting to me during the early days of the Internet... as we observed the somewhat "science fiction" notion of a World Wide Web go from something strange and esoteric to something available to (and probably used by) 75% of the world's population.

So I Struck up a Conversation...

... with this early 30's fellow from Seattle, who was admiring some of the art in the gallery.

As he was getting ready to pay for a couple of art cards, we got to talking about "electronic money" because our shop is "paperless" — and somehow that led to Bitcoin. Turned out this young man works in investment banking and venture capital... and in the course of our conversation, he allowed as how it was not a matter of IF Bitcoin and other major cryptos would become as much of a household concept as "PayPal" or "eBay," but WHEN.

Since he was a "banker," I asked him what he thought of J.P.Morgan-Chase issuing their own crypto token. His response was a little surprising — given his profession:

"Seems like a misguided attempt at hi-jacking a concept they really don't understand the purpose of. They are trying to CONTROL something with a mechanism that's inherently designed to RESIST being controlled by someone. But who knows, they might end up creating a whole new asset class, but it'll never be a TRUE cryptocurrency."

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Source: Screenshot from New York Times web site

"Buy Bitcoin!"

Our conversation didn't go much further but as we got ready to part ways, his parting advice was "Buy Bitcoin!"

"Any particular reason?"

He said it wasn't so much about the price right now, as about sentiment and what was happening in the markets.

For one, the volume of BTC being traded is evidently approaching the levels seen when the token had its trip to the moon in late 2017. Meaning that the "smart money" believes there's a case for broader usage no matter whether detractors are shouting "Bitcoin is a fraud!" from the rooftops while trying to manipulate and destabilize the markets.

Also, the would-be market manipulators (large enough institutions and individuals who cause the sudden $200 instant price swings) are losing ground, in the sense that every time they execute a $300M "dump," they only get to "take back" $250M, with the other $50M going into the hands of long term value investors.

"As they keep losing ground, so they will keep losing the influence to create instability, and gradually we'll reach a point where the confidence of long-term investors will outweigh their ability to create instability, fear and a LACK of confidence. When that tipping point happens, there's only ONE way for the price to go..."

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Red rocks, Sedona, Arizona

Why I Find Such Conversations Meaningful...

Conversations like this also give me a lot of confidence... primarily because the source is outside the heavily biased "Cheerleading Team" of cryptosphere pundits.

I have no way of knowing whether this guy was invested in cryptos — personally, or in terms of "funds under management" — but he did seem to be a pretty sharp tack, and not someone I'd associate with chasing magic unicorns and rainbows.

And that's good enough for me!

Thanks for reading!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

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(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190310 15:03 PST

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Great post. I really enjoyed reading your conversation and I also like to test how people outside of bitcoin and crypto feel about crypto.

Thanks for sharing.

The "outsider view" is really what I have most interest in. I already know that most crypto geeks are part of a cheerleading squad, and it's not always a particularly objective cheerleading squad. When an outsider shares something very postive... unprovoked... it always makes me sit up and take note.

I noticed that Steem has gone up. 0.9% in the last hour, 14.41% in the last 24 hours. 85.42% in the last month.

Note: I have a house mortgaged at 4.42%....so that's interesting.

Yeah, there seems to be upward pressure.
I've also noticed that the market depth has been huge on the buy side and very thin on the sell side for about a week now... when the buyers outnumber sellers by 3-to-1 market forces will take over...

To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.

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