Wild times in the crypto world.
Peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys.
This is nothing new, where Bitcoin spikes, and then gives most of it back and finds a new plateau. But this is the first time the mainstream seems to be sort of watching.
For years people have talked about how the government will just shut it down if it gets big. (I wonder if they ever admit that they were wrong, or if they just always think tomorrow is the day.)
"The government", imo, isn't actually as boorish as the people who believe in it.
They're practical, and act within the limits of what control they really have, to get the best deal for themselves and those who pay them. (Rather than the everlasting, perfect control of everything that their supporters imagine they have.)
In practice it isn't even one monolithic interest. It's a mechanism that those with the most money and the best connections will use for whatever suits them best. Often they're coordinated or naturally aligned with similar interests. There can be dueling interests too.
Maybe in general Bitcoin is a threat to a lot of the interests involved in government. (Then again, maybe they know the fiat system doesn't last forever anyways, and actually welcome an alternative and welcome the excuse that it was "disrupted" rather than failed on its own weight.)
To whatever extent they don't like it, they also know that banning it doesn't actually make it go away. (When they "ban" heroin the point isn't that heroin stops being used, it's that you shift the incentives and make it very profitable for certain people. That's the point.)
There isn't actually any precedence of governments "banning" things that threaten entrenched interests. Rather, they immerse themselves in the new landscape and bend and manipulate it however they can.
(Use things that are real and true and tinker with it rather than write the script yourself and expect people to keep following it. It's a more longsighted way to maintain control.)
So it's more realistic that they'd regulate and maybe lowkey have a presence in the mining scene and things like this, rather than they're going to try to make it go away.
In a sense the whole "blockchain technology" thing is a misdirection and a soft version of an attack on Bitcoin. (Whether or not it's planned or deliberate.)
Any time somebody says "Bitcoin meh, blockchain technology is good tho", you have to stop right there and ask them why. Why is it good?
I'm pretty sure nobody would be able to articulate a reason. Because the real reason why it's good is that it allows people to coordinate and express value without depending on a central point of authority. So then they'd also see why Bitcoin is good.
They're just saying things, and don't actually have a reason in their head.
And at first I didn't mind or think anything of it. Like, please, welcome to the tent! I'm not in the business of telling people not to like the blockchain.
And part of me still feels that way.
But then the other side of the coin is.. you do only need one primary ledger, and so it's kind of missing the point, to like "blockchain" but not like Bitcoin.
Note: "Bitcoin maximalism" isn't my point here. Obviously I wouldn't hold Steem if I felt that way. I'm agnostic as to whether there could be a few coins who serve a real purpose and exist alongside Bitcoin. The point is that I like Bitcoin too, that I'd never be able to marginalize Bitcoin while I advocate "blockchain" in general.
The decentralized ledger that connects the world onto one network of economy is the actual point here. (It doesn't 100% have to be Bitcoin, but then Bitcoin would be the one that's pointless.) That's the game-changer. "Blockchain technology" doesn't do a whole lot besides that.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln shouldn't care too much about the play.
"Blockchain technology" isn't this thing that you apply to conceivably any area of life and it improves it. Most things don't need a blockchain.
So this adoration of "blockchain" (1) distracts from what the real purpose and implication is and (2) bloats up the value of thousands of pointless or scammy tokens and ICOs, which in turn artificially creates something of a pinata to throw wacks at and imply that there's an issue with Bitcoin.
So now the space is a bit more chaotic and confusing than it would be otherwise.
So if you wanted to "attack" Bitcoin, or at least ward it off for as long as possible, rather than directly FUD Bitcoin (which may just cause people to consider whether what you're saying is correct, and have a blowback effect that's the opposite of what you wanted), it seems like a pretty good strategy to actually hype "blockchain".
At least now you confuse some of the energy into dead-ends and scammy things, and the egg shell takes longer to peel. Classic misdirection.
Just food for thought!
What I'm describing could also just happen naturally, without any help from above. But if you were an enemy of Bitcoin, it seems like it would probably make sense for you to encourage this mistake.
You'd be better off doing that than trying to "ban" it.
Yeah, I'm not as convinced that the Government hates Bitcoin as much as some people think. There are basically 2 theories in the conspiracy crowd. That the government will shut it down, or that the government (CIA or whatever) created Bitcoin so that we all go digital. The latter might be true but I won't digress.
But if you are the government, the only thing you need to regulate are exchanges and maybe the technology that big companies will use to receive Bitcoin transactions. That's really it. Governments already live with a certain amount of untraceable cash transactions.
There has always been a black market of dark money that every government has had to live with. This is nothing new with Bitcoin. It just makes allows for a black market on the internet now, but its really going to end up being the same black market that's always existed. The government will still find a way to bust a certain amount of transactions and it will be the same old game just modernized.
"Blockchain" has become an overused marketing term and is starting to lose it's meaning because so many people are using it to mean so many different things. This is also true with "AI" which has been used since the 1950's to describe calculators.
haha. You just spoke my mind right there, bro, and even more succinctly in the next paragraph. I think most people just choose to say things like that for whatever reason, like you said, just to say things. The government are rational; rational enough to know that
I also totally agree with the fact that not every frigging thing needs blockchain. But its freaking amazing how many Whitepaper is floating around concerning basically any aspect of life. It's crazy cos obviously most of them are totally unnecessary scammy things but of course they find a reason or another to justify the space on the Whitepaper.
I remember when I first became interested in Augur (it's a prediction market on Ethereum -- not built yet), and even showed it to people as like an interesting thing and maybe good investment. And then it kind of gradually dawned on me like that it isn't built yet, and basically all you'd be invested in is this handful of people.
Like you see Augur on coinmarketcap (and it was pretty high at one point) and there's a community behind it talking about it on Reddit, and then you stop and realize, all this is is Joey Krug and a few other dudes.
Now, I don't think Augur is a scam. (At least, I have no idea.) But I just mean it was eye opening how it can feel like there's something real going on, and then you realize it's just some guy, like that's all that's going on here, is this guy from New Jersey or whatever is coding something.
And Augur I think is actually one of the better concepts, in terms of like what you actually need a blockchain for.
All that's to say I think we're a ways away from blockchain apps being practical or used much. So when they're built now there usually isn't a real reason they should be valued at all (even if the idea is good, someone else can improve on it whenever the market is ready for it). Like just because a few shmoes code something, it doesn't mean this will actually initiate a network effect that makes this the winning project in a couple decades when the world is ready for it.
So even if a lot of ideas are good, whether the projects themselves should capture any value or attention is a different question.
Definitely! I nodded in affirmation all through this.
Its so amazing how small things get when you really look at them, like wth how did this get to become such a big deal in my freaking eyes. Worst part is most people never stop to consider.
Nobody could have said it better!
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Hi bro.
Nice article, as always. :D
So true. Blockchain is an absolute progression/improvement; and of course it is not perfect yet - "right at the start", many problems to be solved and so on.
Well, btc was and is an important invention too. Showing - moreover banks - that the centralized system is not the only one; decentralization can be awesome too.
The haters are just jealous, dumb, unaware, disinterested, extremely rich,... - there are many possible reasons. However, they cannot stop us! :D
Edit: Yeah, the fiat system probably will not exist forever but I think we will not be alive when this "disappearance" happens. People are slow, you know. But Idk, just my opinion. (:
Unfortunately, as you know, to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, probably the most convenient way is to perform a bank transfer. Bank accounts are already controlled by governments, so moving money between fiat and bitcoin will always cause trouble for that reason. Directly paying for products and services in crypto is what we really need to achieve. However, if anyone really thinks that governments will just sit by idly watching a mob overturn their national currency into something else, think again. Their web of control extends far more than we can ever imagine and you can be certain that they will criminalize the possession and transfer of Bitcoin if it ever becomes the dominant currency.
Well, regulations like "you can't do this with your bank account" would be more about regulating banks and what they can be involved with than it would be banning Bitcoin itself. In this case, you'd still be able to use the Bitcoin network, and as you say buy things directly.
This would probably just hurt banks even more.
Meh, I mean if there's no alternative, what else should they do? Do you think the fiat system will last forever?
Without Bitcoin it would just be more obvious that the whole thing was a ruse and was never going to end well.
All it would take is a government to have a decent little stockpile of Bitcoin (especially if it's a government who doesn't currently have one of the bigger fiats) and then they don't have any reason to want it to go away.
By mentioning trouble I meant taxes. If you want to exchange two currencies such as euro with dollar, no matter what, you just don’t pay any taxes including forex acc, if you happen to have any profits. Why it is diferent with bitcoin? You see what’s the diference? It’s this whole decentralized system. Goverment doesn’t like decentralized, otherwise they would tread it just like any other currency.
I think "they" know that their FIAT system is simply bound to fall apart, because they are printing unlimited money. Basically every country has debt. Just look at US debt. They are in very bad situation because their debt is in the trillions.
Spreading FUD might be beneficial for the governments, because they probably wanna get in at the lowest prices possible, before it shoots to the moon. Anyway, there's still a long way to go for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. We'll see how all of this turns out.
Just calling it decentralized means it’s something most of goverments don’t agree with. I really don't think it's an exaggeration that blockchain technology will at the end change the world. It is a fundamentally new way for creating decentralized systems. To me, it is a game changer. The currency speculation stuff is a sideshow. However, if there wasn't this bitcoin bubble, nobody would know about blockchain, and the topic would be completely boring to 95% of people. But the technology itself, including social platforms such as Steemit, is going to change how almost every single digital service is structured. Everyone knows that government and financial institutions are completely against it, they are frightened by blockchain technology. At the and people will win this war and they will have to adapt.
Outstanding post!
I agree with you 100%
Admit they were wrong....laugh
we need to keep focused and patient..
Thx again!
I'm doubtful that you actually read it!
Some people flag for spam. I probably won't, but feel free to expand on your thoughts here.
Its time for the crypto haters to have a look at this crypto market.I think enemy of crypto has done every thing to ban crypto,but i think they are unsuccessful to do so.No one will be able to stop crypto now.Bad time will go and the sun will shile very soon.So stop hating crypto and join crypto market,this will give you better income than other profession.Thanks for sharing with us.
all this fight to eliminate the bitcoin comes from the efforts being made by the central bank of Europe to exterminate the bitcoin because it considers it a great threat ... the bitcoin has changed lives and me in particular ... the blockchain technology is without doubt the safest in the world ..
All of bitcoin is great
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Should I vote your comment here, or do you mean vote for your blog posts?
What % should I vote at?
Great post and I do completely agree with you.
Ethereum is just simply the better project.
lol, I feel like somebody spammed this same comment on a different post before (it didn't make any sense on that post either)
I don't think Ethereum is the better project and never said that. Flagging because your spam actually puts words in my mouth that I didn't say and that's sort of obnoxious.