What happened to 2018 being "the year of the crypto"?
Source
Remember not long ago when cryptos were flying high towards the end of 2017? It was a great time, steem was above $8 and sbd touched $15usd! It seemed like every cryptocurrency was in the green at least a few hundred percent. Bitcoin passed the $20,000usd mark and held a $335 billion market cap by itself. The overall crypto market cap was pushing a trillion dollars! You really couldn't go wrong as long as you were investing in something crypto at the time.
I kept hearing everywhere was that 2018 was even going to be better, it was coined "the year of the cryptos." It was the year cryptos were supposedly going from "innovator" stage to "early adoption" stage. It is considered innovator stage when less the 1% of the population is involved and early adoption after it pushes up towards 2% or 3% of the population, I don't know the exact numbers but I'm close. I know that doesn't sound like a big jump, but it is huge! Everyone in the cryptosphere was getting excited.
I started seeing bitcoin everywhere. It was appearing in TV shows, it was everywhere on the internet, even mainstream media started talking about it quite often on the news, it was like I couldn't get away from it. Big names like John McCaffee were talking about bitcoin going to a million dollars and it seemed like that bull market was never going to end. Until it did end, and it went red quick.
Apparently someone forgot to tell the cryptoverse that 2018 was "its year" because it has actually been a pretty terrible year for cryptos thus far, so I've been calling it "the year of the bears." The cryptoverse has done nothing but decline since mid Dec 2017. That puts us at nearly 6 months in a downed market. Bitcoin is down more than 60% from its highs at $20,000 and most of the alt coins are down even more than that. Sure there are a few coins that are up throughout all of this but they are few and far between to say the least.
Now I know this seems like a dying market but the truth is that bitcoin is still up around 200% from one year ago today when it was at $2,765 (per bitcoin), you can't really complain about that for a return in a bear market! Anyhow, the market climbed up entirely to fast in the last quarter (Q4) of 2017 so it had to correct itself and correct itself it did, hard. It ultimately tumbled back down to where the market was in early November 17' (right before things really took off in the cryptoshere) and has been bobbering there for a while now. I like to call this "bubbling" because it just goes up and down a bunch of times (like watching boiling water) until it creates enough energy to break through the ceiling and starts the next bull run.
The pull back has been hard on a lot of people, many people lost a lot of money and the weak hands (and non-believers) have been pushed out of the market. But if you are smart you just sat and held (HODL), waiting for the market to pick back up, which it inevitably will, it is only a matter of time. The longer it bubbles, the harder it should shoot up when it breaks out.
We have to remember that technology moves at a certain rate (much slower than most realize) and in the cryptoverse we often speculate on future endeavors whether there is a working model or not. We the "innovators" see this technology for what it could be in the future, unfortunately most of it isn't even actively used yet, many things are just theories at this point and that doesn't excite everyone like it does the innovators. It's not bad to speculate on these things, I just feel many of them have been over speculated on and thats what created the bull run. We are just now getting back to where we should've been.
Another huge problem is FUD. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about cryptos is out of control lately. Governments and corporations like banks have long controlled the money supply and the way money moves about. They don't like these new decentralized ideals of money because they can't control it so they are doing everything in their power to shut down cryptos before they loose their power of money (and control). They are scared to death about the power of cryptos, and they should be! This is the true freedom that humanity needs to separate itself from a destructive machine of debt that has crushed man kind since the it's creation.
I don't know if we will make it out of the bear market this year or not, it seems like it has been in the red forever at this point. The longest bear market in bitcoin history lasted nearly 2 years (Nov 13' to Nov 15') so I really hope we don't have a repeat of that. However, that was shortly after it went nearly 10X from $120 to over $1,100 in just one month! And it was pretty early on in bitcoin life so it really didn't have much use case back then. Oh and that was also before nearly all the other altcoins were around so bitcoin was basically the market cap, so I honestly doubt that will happen again right now. I do know that I still believe in the cryptoverse and that this bear market will ultimately end, I just have no clue when that is. But I will tell you one thing, this is a great time to get into the market while prices are still low. "The best time to make money is when there is blood in the streets" Hopefully we can still turn this year around and make it a good one for everyone involved in cryptos!
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I'm really not to concerned with the prices right now. I got in at the wrong time (Jan '18) so am 70% down on some holdings, but they are small holdings.
Most of my cash is in STEEM and I'm up on that and due to the inflationary methodology behind it and powering up when it was low.
I think the Governements and Banks have much to do with the incline. Like the talk of taxing profit, banning of crypto use in some places, banks refusing to support crypto transfers, etc. (My bank did this.) News like this scares people. Cause and effect. Crypto goes down.
Maybe 2019 will be the year.
Oh yeah, absolutely! They are doing whatever they can to stop or at least slow down cryptos until they can figure some shit out.
Yes, 2018 is half over and the red is deep red but there is still plenty of time for a run up. Will it happen, don't ask me as I know nothing about crypto other than like you said, it is the biggest threat to governments around the world. The G7 conference or whatever number conference going on right now in Canada, I'm sure crypto is a topic of discussion in closed door sessions. Everyone talks about World War 3, it may be that WW3 is a currency war, cryptos vs fiats, that would make for some good history writing in the future.
i quite agree with you. it's HODLing for me right now too. on all my cryptos. hahaha i'm pretty much just trying to turn a blind eye on all that i've lost so far, since I believe the markets will eventually pick up again and then my losses would become great gains! especially for bitcoin ;>
I don't really care if we're seeing these prices for the rest of the year. As long as you didn't buy between 10k - 20k, you shouldn't worry too much either ;)
I'm not worried at all, but I don't expect to get rich overnight. I understand stocks (of any kind) take time to make good money so I'm in for the long run. Yes, I did buy all of mine well before that range, but it still sucks to watch a good portion of profits fall away. However, I know its only a matter of time until we get back to those prices again. ;)
Nice post @moderndayhippy. The opposition appears to be winning the current round, but to my mind that is an illusion created mostly by the December novice grabbing spike. If one blots out the beginning of November till somewhere in March or April part of the graph and imagine that never happened, the market actually looks quite healthy.
Crypto is missing the point, it is worse than fiat currency.
It really proved to people that you cant trust cryptocurrency.
Hey Coach, I don't think 'crypto' has proven anything...it's the people making up the market going hither and thither for not understanding the usefulness of crypto and for fearing what the banks and governments may rule about it that affects the market value of the coins. But we are early in the learning curve and as the market learns more about what crypto is really about, confidence in crypto will surge, and so it's market value. That's my opinion.
Mr clicks, your reply has the key ingredients on what needs to be done. We need to make products that gains the confidence of the people. The amount of people that do know about crypto is massive at the moment. And they not willing to invest in it.
Most people know what is good for themselves.
What i realized, when obtaining the best results, more experimenting with different recipes will bring us to the most desirable results.
At the moment, the recipe is not good, nobody wants to eat it.
From cars to airplanes, development was the key to better performance, comfort and safety.
With money, we have to base it on assets, not thin air or else we just coping fiat currency.
Do you know how much people is willing to invest in crypto? Alot, BUT they wont until it has assets to back it up. And gold, silver or any asset that doesn't do anything physical, will not move any currency into a position of trust. The asset has to increase in value by doing something valuable for society, like a physical business.
If i could not swim, will you trust me to be coach children in a deep pool that they can drown in?
Trust is not a human right, it has to been gained by our actions
Nobody just has to trust you, we have to work hard to gain the trust of others.
You are talking right up my way of seeing it Coach!
I have a currency in mind that has energy as it's value-equivalent. All real products and services require plain and simple real energy to produce (plus of course your creative drive behind it, which can be taken for granted!)
It takes a given amount of energy to put a bread on the table, time and again. The same goes for cooking a specific meal, or for manufacturing anything in particular. (Different for each of course).
So would it not be sensible to have a currency with a value of say one unit of electricity - then that currency will always have the same value and you will always need the same amount of that currency (energy) for buying your basic needs.
Won't that make our lives a little easier to plan?
This is the questions investors ask:
Is my investment safe?
Can it grow?
How fast can it grow?
How fast can i liquidate?
The most important thing that we want to avoid is tax, we want to go our own way, that is why people like bitcoin.
Mmmm...what I have in mind here has alas absolutely nothing to do with speculative investment.
Speculating with anything is about gaining wealth for yourself in a do or die survival of the fittest society. It is a society where combative greed rules the waves. It has nothing to do with doing your bit productively adding to the wellbeing and quality of life of the community at large. What you gain speculating is always a loss for someone else - profit that you take not by producing anything useful, but by 'lawfully' just taking money that someone else risked to invest in whatever you are selling. It is a form of opportunistic gambling that does not add anything real to the economy. It causes bubble in apparent value, that can burst. It is a cause of inflation.
Producers of real goods, like bread you can eat, or real services, like teaching you something or building roads or pulling up weeds, are the only folks that add real wealth to the economy.
But please don't get me wrong. I am not criticizing you - speculation has become such a dominant part of modern economies that you have to take part in order to survive. Which is why I speculate too. But that does not make speculation a good thing. Not at all. The only real effect that speculation has is that it distorts the economy. It makes the rich richer and the poor poorer for no good reason at all.
And I am not saying that anybody has to work either. As far as I am concerned robots can do all the work that has to be done.
Why are some rich and some poor? Two reasons: some earn more by producing more an some grab more than others do. And the wealthier you are, the easier it is to grab more profit - a fact of life, especially in an economy where speculation plays a major role. It may be fair to have more because you contribute more goods and services - you really earn that wealth. But is it fair to become wealthier just because you have more money to speculate with? I seriously doubt it.
The system I have in mind is one in which has enough purchasing power to survive with on an ongoing basis. That takes the fear of not surviving out of the equation. That makes it unnecessary for anyone to steal in order to survive. It is a system that is fair toward the disabled and those too old to be productive anymore. It sponsors the young to study instead having to beg and borrow in order to do so. And it gives breathing space for those that can be productive and so earn more, to rise above the level of merely surviving.
And because it is a decentralized system, automatically giving everyone the necessary purchasing power to survive with (like getting fresh air and water and the fruits of nature for free) it also gives everybody the freedom to do whatever they want to. If you are a fisherman, you can fish for a profit; if you love polishing shoes, you can polish shoes for a profit; if you are a surfer not interested in earning wealth, you can surf your days away. It is a free market system in which you can be truly free - no debts, no taxes, no fear of dying of hunger, no government telling you what to do and what not. What more do you want?
Ok, this sounds utopian - and knowing the establishment is very well embedded, especially in first word countries and it is not easy to break old perceptions and old beliefs and old habits and old fears, a system like this may not take off all that easy. But in third world countries where half the able people simply don't have paid incomes sufficient to survive on, something like this may take off like wild fire.
But it is also true that even in the USA there are large parts of the population where both parents have to earn salaries in order to survive. And I dare say a system like this may just make it possible for mom to stay at home and raise her kids again, which will be a huge benefit in itself.
Forgive me for taking off on a rant in this reply to you - nothing personal...just saying what comes to mind!
Have a nice day Coach!
How do i learn more about this crypto?
Thanks for reading @coachjoachim - for personal reasons I have not been very active over the last number of months, but I have placed a number of posts introducing the basics of it in my blog.
If you have the time to look at these too, I have also put in quite a lot of effort into explaining points in my replies to comments on the subject.
It is not an easy subject and my objective is not to make money promoting it. The motive is to provide a workable marketplace that will help placing fair fulfillment of everybody's needs within reach of everyone, irrespective of how the cards of fate have been dealt to you.
Hope you enjoy learning more about this ideal!
lololol, well maybe the cryptoverse finally got the message and will soon get its act together :D Fingers crossed.