Most People in Crypto Don't Really Care About a Financial Revolution
This will earn me hate and ridicule, but I'm gonna do this anyway. Rant time.
Way back when I first got into bitcoin, it was around $10 a piece, and bought a bunch. It never crossed my mind that we could one day see bitcoin at $3000 a piece. Sure, I knew that everything was possible, but it was still never a thought that I gave attention to.
I originally got myself a bunch of bitcoins to use for - ahem - alternative purchases.
The point of bitcoin, a digital currency, was to be used as a currency. Quite the concept. The allure of BTC was that it wasn't controlled by the government, or a central bank. It was obviously something a libertarian myself could appreciate.
The idea of bitcoin was sold to me as the currency of the future.
Notice how I say "currency"?
Then the price started to spike, hard. And quickly enough, bitcoin was worth $100, then $200, $500, $800 dollars a piece. It made a lot of people into millionaires. All those people who had bought their bitcoins very early, even when it was below my personal $10 entry point.
Even people outside of the crypto sphere heard about these "bitcoin millionaires" who had sold their their bitcoins and bought beach houses, cars, cocaine and expensive whores.
Bitcoin became a hot topic, and despite a few slumps, it's been rising in value to this very day, recently reaching all time highs.
So, does this mean that we're closer to a financial revolution brought forth by crypto currency?
Hell no.
You see, as it began to rise in value, bitcoin moved from its original purpose - that being a digital currency - to an investment. People started to buy bitcoin because its value is rising, and could rise exponentially in the future.
Not that making investments is a bad thing; I've made my money mostly on crypto investments, after all.
But the question no one seems to be asking themselves is this: what's the endgame of all these crypto investments?
To be used as crypto? To be used to buy a house, a car, groceries? No, the endgame is to ultimately dumping them into fiat profits.
Because that's what people really care about: how much fiat currency can I make off of these crypto investments.
It bugs me because in the midst of all this, the original, and awesome, point of crypto currencies seems to be lost. Crypto was supposed to offer us an alternative to the state controlled fiat currency that will ultimately fail us, and make us poorer. It was supposed to be an alternative to the spying and control that we're subjected to when using government money.
I've been following people in crypto for a long time, and I'm afraid a lot of people would take quick fiat currency profits over a global financial revolution any day.
It can be seen in the popularity of bitcoin, for instance.
What's bitcoin good for? It's expensive and slow; confirmations take an average of 300 years, and transaction fees keep climbing so high there's no real point in even using it. So, it's already worse than fiat currencies. Store of value? Well, maybe, kinda, the volatility does make it a failure as a store of value, as well. Gold is still a much better store of value, if you're looking for one.
So, again: what's bitcoin good for? It can't be used as a currency, it sucks as a store of value, so what's it good for? An investment. Certainly not as a currency.
Ethereum is predicted to be the next bitcoin now. And already the blockchain is failing; confirmations are getting slower, and we're seeing the same things happen that are happening with bitcoin.
So, why are people buying ethereum? Because the value is going up.
And hey, don't get me wrong. Of course it makes sense to make good investments, and we all need fiat currency to live right now, and who doesn't like profits. I certainly do, and I've made profits in crypto that I'm happy about.
I'm just annoyed by the this stupid hype over coins like bitcoin and ethereum because all they do is stand in the way of an actual crypto revolution that could be brought to us by a better blockchain.
You know, like one with three second, free transactions and great scalability.
Despite what people may feel about Steemit, the site, or even Dan - and there certainly are a lot of mixed feelings out there - the STEEM blockchain is the best blockchain currently out there, and the best bet right now to bring us a digital currency that can actually compete with the government currencies in usability as an actual currency.
It's possible, maybe even likely, that a better blockchain gets developed in the future, but right now it's safe to say that it's the best one.
And the more BTC's value rises, the more annoyed I get. Same with ETH, to be honest.
What I want to do is buy everyday things with crypto currencies. Not just hold them and hope for a price surge, I want a revolution now. I want not needing to cash out crypto anymore to do stuff with it.
I want people to abandon shitcoins like BTC and ETH, because they are in the way of something much greater than some quick bucks on your bank account.
Full blocks, skyrocketing transaction fees.. bitcoin user not affected, huh, right guys?
No wait..
Well, there's one great thing in crypto right now. The fact that DOGE revolution will be forever. One day, we will be buying Hot Doges with 1 DOGE, and my 1,000,000 DOGE will feed me for a long time.
To the moon.
That was exactly what I was about to write. Cryptocurrency future is highly uncertain because of current exchange-mania. Besides bitcoin which is used as a gateway currency to the markets and a small fraction as a payement currency, I really don't understand from where this price rise comes from? Is it a certain bubble? Doubt it. It sure has a exchange purpose, until or when it goes mainstream, then the blockchain could see some practical use and possibly a competition to fiat. Thanks for this article.
Lets hope so!
However, if I would like to buy stuff with crypto's right now then i have to buy crypto's with fiat for a premium from the exchange i'm buying from. Plus the business which accepts then will charge us the same premium for converting it back to fiat... So until I get my paycheck in crypto's, this remains a problem...
The annoying part is the high tranzation fees and the forever waiting time ..
I think it is because for most currencies you need to buy bitcoin to buy the currency you want. But luckily there is the Gulden (NLG), what is getting more accepted day by day in The Netherlands, if i remember it right they are gonna have a direct eur/NLG exchange from next month. So I focus my hope on this project, oh and they are improving segwit now with there PoW2 update so transactions will be even more fast than it is already.
I'm in it for the money, looking for interesting investments and building up a crypto portfolio. Bitcoin is old tech, it's a digital gold as it stands right now.
There have been so many advancements in the tech, like Steemit - I mean wtf, running a social media website on a blockchain.... absolutely destroys the ridiculous fees on BTC and the inability of ETH to function during an ICO.
It's the first mover advantage Bitcoin has and also it's utility to function as a base of value for shitcoin trading and a gateway into the blockchain.
That's why it's going up, not that it can be used as a currency. It was just first and we all trade the shitcoins with the bitcoins.
:O
That's exactly what it is right now: a gateway and reserve currency in crypto space. If you have a few alt coins in your portfolio you will notice that portfolio value in BTC terms is rising regardless of the BTC volatility.
New fiat money flows into BTC and into alt coins, underpinning the value of BTC in the process.
Reserve currency that's probably the best description that I have found on the internet for Bitcoin.
Most people are here for the money. Everyone sees that this new thing has just posted 4000% gains in 6 months and wants in. That's just how it works.
Out of the group of people who could tell you what Bitcoin was, only a fraction understands the how/why it works and only a fraction have even heard of Ethereum. Out of that tiny sliver of the population that holds ETH, the amount who could even articulate the goals of the project and what makes it different than say Sia coin is very small. This is the Wild West. This is experimental. Nobody knows what they are doing.
It is interesting however that we are starting to see some blockchain developers who have never even heard about Bitcoin. Blockchain is going mainstream, maybe without the incumbents.
Flawless Masterpiece. I believe at one point we are going to experience such a bitch-slap, it will make us all re-evaluate what the blockchain is all about.
Only Dan has been able so far to truly inspire an ideological change. Everyone else like you said just took Satoshi idea and raped it anally.
btw. I think you are going to like this one
https://steemit.com/ethereum/@kyriacos/the-magnificent-ethereum-machine
Yup, liked it, and already upvoted it earlier. Gave me a chuckle.
To be honest, Steem is not perfect, either. While it can scale quite well, there is no privacy which is a huge barrier for using it as a currency.
If you use steem for daily stuff, not only governments can see what you are doing, but everybody else, too.
There are lots of problems with steem. There will be innovation and progress.
We might not be on steem in 5 years.
What do you feel are these problems?
Economics, complexity, consensus, graphene.
At least participating in Steem doesn't requires a big mining rig.
Sure but you forfeit some control for that.
You don't have to use a mining rig to be a user of Bitcoin.
Not really sure your point.
This is true. Private transactions should be added as quickly as possible.
Couldn't that be circumvented by trading on the exchanges?
By "using as a currency" I mean that people would start to buy and sell all kinds of stuff with steem. Trading is only very small part of a real economy.
I can't say that private transactions aren't important, only that until that time people can exchange their steem on a trading website and fund their purchases through that, I don't know because I haven't done it yet but I assume that privacy is a must on those exchanges.
Ahh, you mean like that. Well, that of course works, but then people are not using steem as a currency, but only as an investment and then they exchange it for fiat currency or something else to buy stuff.
And it's not only how to use steem to buy, but how to sell stuff for it. Having a third party to go through is usually very inconvenient.
We can have a real economy when steem can be used as a real P2P currency, without any middlemen.
Nobody is using currency as currency though, everyone is using currency as a store of value though, absolutely every single person is doing that and every single currency out there is merely a store of value.
Yes it would be better if we could trade one commodity for another without a middle man and their fees, but a measure of value will never be anything other than an abstraction like an ounce, or a degree, once it's tangible, either in the real world or the digital world, it's no longer an abstraction, or an idea, but an actual thing that can be exchanged/transferred and therefore it's like saying that the ounce or the degree can be exchanged/transferred when in fact it's only an abstraction, an idea which represents something abstract, which can be "created" freely, and without limit, or it couldn't be used as a system of measurement.
Real economy in this world doesn't exclude middlemen, economy in this world requires free trade. I don't think there will be a currency in the world until people understand what is and what isn't a system of measuring value.
None of the "currencies" we refer to as "currency" are currencies.
I get it, I know you do to, since you used the term "store of value" to describe them, because that is what all currency is, a store of value.
For us to remove the control that the fiat currency has over us we need to come to terms with this fact, because without realizing what a currency is we will not stand a chance at fighting for a financial revolution.
Yes, many of the people that promote these currencies are simply in it for a quick investment from one commodity to another, and that's an important observation that very few are willing to express but most everyone see it.
I'm not going to excuse that by parroting that "there's no choice" self defeatism which is prevalent in these scenarios, what is important I believe is pointing out that in the past all business was done with Tally Sticks, and there was no problem what so ever with that. People created their own units to represent a debt and then resolved the debt against those units, and that can happen at any time, we aren't slaves to this system if we realize that dollars, marks, francs, all these are stores of value, and as such we can treat them as stores of value not a unit of value.
As the market changes and things fluctuate we can funnel more and more of the controlled/manipulated, artificial value( which is engineered to fail) of the dollars, marks, francs, into stores of value that are free from the centralized control of the bankers, the end. That is how we win, by changing all our shitty bags of rice that are full of holes and tears and devalue by design our rice, into bags of rice that actually do their job of storing value, and then we can actually start doing what our ancestors have been doing in lieu of "currency" and create our own ledgers, with our own units and resolve our debts on our terms, otherwise known as FREE TRADE.
Money:
Medium of exchange, store of value, unit of account.
A medium of exchange is an intermediary instrument used to facilitate the sale, purchase or trade of goods between parties. For an instrument to function as a medium of exchange, it must represent a standard of value accepted by all parties. In modern economies, the medium of exchange is currency.
Standard of value is antithetical to "change", standard is by the very definition means NOT CHANGING.
If money changes wanton in how much value it measures it's not standard.
For money to be both a measure of value and a STORE of value, it creates a contradiction in function. A unit is an abstract idea, not a tangible thing.
For example, a meter, a ounce, a second, are all abstract ideas that are never tangible, cannot be by their very function of Measurement.
You cannot own, transfer or touch a kilometer, nor a second, nor a measure of value. You can use a length of rope to measure a kilometer, but that doesn't mean that the rope is a unit of measurement, the unit is abstract, everyone can create them and the standard is hammers down in stone and unchanging, or it will invalidate all other measurements.
www.bibocurrency.com
These are the kind of harsh words that I'm also missing since 2014. But as my coworkers put it as I told them why Bitcoin or Cryptos in general are important:
"I couldn't care less why it's important as long as I can get 500% profit per year."
Furthermore I don't understand why there is no real BTC Economy running like Amazon etc. so you never have to leave crypto. With all these Millionaires there should be at least some of them that are business savy enough to build something like that.
Unfortunately I'm not a millionaire but I try within my means to make a difference.
Thanks for your post
Much love from Germany
I enjoyed reading your thoughts. I think you raise some valid points and highlight some of the frustrations within the community. Hype and speculation really won't help the tech in the long run.
One thing I would say, and its something I have written about a lot recently and covered in my interview with Rogue Money, is that "currency" is only a small part of the revolution.
Smart contracts, transparent and accountable systems,and replacing financial middlemen will have a more profound impact on finance than coins meant to be used as currency. That being said, you are right, we do need to continue to develop the infrastructure to utilize crypto as currency in our everyday lives. This is one of the reasons I have been so vocal about LTC. BTC is slow and expensive, LTC is fast and is a great currency, not to mention the prospect of lightning network.
We will have to see what happens, do not be discouraged, we can still make the world a better place! :)
I predict that Hot Doges will have more value than Bitcoin. Its the real flippening.
Long live the Doge!
LOL ^ greatest steemit name found so far
Please explain!
Doesn't the supply increases rapidly that will never be scarcity?
sorry i get it now Dogecoin is just a fun alt lol long live doge
I bet on Twinkies being the most valuable.
Twinkie Coin ICO coming soon to your nearest exchange
Every Ripple investor