- Did any of you who lived through the first days of the internet realise the profound change that was going on at the time?
- Can you even remember first hearing about commerce online and how scary it felt?
- How about online dating? That really sounded like a joke, right? I remember thinking: "Probably some Japanese couple..."
- How about thinking if texting on cellphones ( SMS only at the time) could ever replace most voice calls?
We are still reading about some relevant someone talking about the financial sector and saying that the importance of bitcoin is not bitcoin but the blockchain, basically trying to confort some increasingly uneasy bankers and investors.
You can almost picture some relevant someone else 15 years ago telling the music industry that they will be able to sell CDs over the internet.
No worries, right?
"Blockchain not bitcoin" is an argument made by and for those who believe, like the music industry did, that crypto is just a transitory fashion and are waiting for the crypto hype to blow over. The are probably hoping for those "bitcoin freaks" to go out of business.
It's kind of funny for us techs who know by now that cryptocurrencies have a way of not fucking dying.
I lived the internet revolution and I wouldn't have said at any point during the first years of real mass adoption that I was living one of the great transformations in history.
Still being on the lookout, it's hard to see the change made by crypto today but here's something to consider:
The importance of the Internet is more and more apparent as time goes by and the transformation digs deeper and deeper into all aspects of society, making it almost imposible for the current economy to function without it.
There is a good chance that crypto is just as big a change as the Internet was and, just as with the internet, people living through the firs steps of the technology can't percieve it.
Big changes like these are only apparent in hindsight.
HODL.
I am with you, there is no way back. Bitcoin, steem & co will have their future. However I am a bit scared of this digitalized new world. Look at Estonia, where the kids learn coding in the first school years and everything administrative is done virtually. I myself not a youngster anymore try to keep up to date, understand this more and more complex world but would rather live a simplified life, spend more time on fresh air and see my kids spending less time online... Paying with pepples or coins was much more fun than keeping all those passwords secure.
It scares me too but as you say, there's no way back.
And I find it hopeful that there is still a way for permissionless change (not everything was fun for everyone).
HODL