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.
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.
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.
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
Another great article. I just bought some more DOGE to take my total to 100k because of that comment :)
Bitcoin has all that infrastructure and first comer advantage that will be hard to beat. It will be forked again and again and it will end up in a better state than it is today. Steem is better, faster and free of charge, so I have no fear that Steem won't be massively successful too.
We are all still in early days of blockchain development, many moons yet to come.
Agreed! Although I am an investor and I put my money in for hopes to multiply it. I make it a point to invest in coins with actual value that help solve a global problem.
And most importantly, long live the DOGE.
Long live DOGE!
Much value
Such moon
Many possibilities
So revolution
Wow
Excellent points - I often think about these sorts of things. I think one of the things that gets in the way is human tribal nature.
People latch on to a particular coin like a football team or even worse like a religion and can't handle any kind of honest evaluation or even statement of areas that need improvement.
It is a bit silly really.
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
An initial failure to scale isn't a failure.
The internet could barely scale when we wanted to send anything beyond text , and then it did.
The internet could barely scale when we wanted to send anything beyond pictures, and then it did.
Video, Streaming, 4k video... etc.
I see your point that the current use is not what was intended, but isn't that the case with most revolutionary technologies? When DARPA.net was created, do you think the inventors would have imagined the success of Youtube, Netflix, AWS, and the like?
I see your point.
But the internet in the beginning and the bitcoin blockchain are different things. I'm not as optimistic about the ability to really tinker with the BTC blockchain in any way that could produce the scaling needed for it to succeed. It's the nature of the blockchain that's the problem.
And there's really no need for BTC to change in order for a financial revolution to happen, since a superior alternative already exists.
You are so right. This is not ready.
I got my shift pay card in the mail the other day, Im also mining LTC. I bought groceries with LTC and got cash back to buy dutches. feels fucking great!!!
This post received a 13% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @schattenjaeger! For more information, click here!
This! You speak my mind @schattenjaeger. Upvoted and Followed you.
I'm late for the Crypto party, but I became interested because of the same reason you were in it and that the blockchain technology can move us past the greedy fed, and of course it was Satoshi's vision when he conceived bitcoin ( that the code and mathematics will decide the fate of the currency and not some corrupt institution) . The sooner I found out the hard truth, I looked at other crypto and found NEM and Steemit. Between them I found NEM to be very secretive of their current update for Catapult and believe them to be overvalued for weeks now. Now I know I'm a little late to the Steem party as well but I'm still gonna stick around because I think it's got a lot going for it. Fast Transaction time, ease of use, and massive potential for mainstream adoption. I believe we have something special with Steem, regardless of what will Steem's value be in 5 yrs doesn't concern me because I know somehow it won't fall to the same pitfalls the top 2 currencies have now. I'm not a hater and I do own a small portion of my stash with them and I believe bitcoin as well as ethereum are both on the move to resolving this scalability issues. I believe that the crypto space will be more than enough to handle few successful Cryptocurrency not just Bitcoin, Ether and Steem but some other potential Cryptocoin we haven't even heard of yet.
:)
Can't help it bud. It's always gonna be about money. It's USDs,JPYs & CNYs now as they are the money. Soon it will be BTCs, ETHs & LTCs as they be the future money. The sheep don't care about Financial Revolution hell I doubt they even know that is , they just care about the money they make when it goes up up up. Then when this goes all crashing down they be quick to sell hehe...
Totally agree with you on this point! In the last few months a lot people coming to me and asking me: Sergio in which coin I can invest to make big money? ..
I was thinking a lot about this and every time I just say to this people: Do you really know for what this coins were invented for in the beginning?
And now you wrote a post about this :) Thanks so much for this. People have to think about it again :)
IMHO If a financial revolution comes it wont be from the peasantry, maybe the Canaanite bankers answer to cryptos will be the financial revolution. Who knows they maybe behind it, a trial for cashless system. I mean a very small volume of folks even know what BTC is, so say they make a coin and tag on lots of perks for early adopters nice low price for a few months. Lets call it the SDR coin =), then it starts getting pumped up and up. It going to 10k,100k etc moon moon moon. Everyone knows its a evil coin but putting all your BTC ETH whatever in now is a cert. And it is, all the crypto folks become rich and all the coins become nothing more than hobby coins. The SDR blockchain becomes king of the word. If you knew SDRcoin would go up 400000000% would you put all your cryptos fiat etc in. The Canaanites would not care if a few got rich as the end game would be far more valuable. lol flight of fantasy of course but sh1t this is a bizarre game we play =).
Well said.
Most people do only invest in cryptocurrencies just for the price to rise but I can't wait for that day when it's widely used throughout the world.
People are buying Bitcoin as a lottery ticket.
They are least interested in the technology or financial revolution.
Pioneers get slaughtered, settlers prosper. Lets get this STEEMRevolution underway.
How many Doges were you paid for this hit piece? :)
On a related note, cryptocurrencies have the potential to be a better store of value than gold as the supply can be controlled. That's why gold has been so successful thus far, but extraterrestrial mining in the next few decades will destabilize the standard. Still a long way to go before we have a viable cryptocurrency to replace the gold standard, though.
It is a shame that most people, as you say, aren't interested in being a part of something new and amazing - but instead are just looking for a way to profit.
The entire planet is benefited from having the currency of the realm OUT of the hands of the world-elites and world governments, and back into the hands of the PEOPLE! If the masses cannot see that, then that is truly a shame.
Keep up the good work, @schattenjaeger - you've got a new follower here.
Best Regards,
@abn
Well, it's a matter of mindset whether people see Bitcoin or any other coin as a currency or a speculative asset. While the market is clearly dominated by the latter – at least among the non-institutional investors – the utility of crypto coins as a currency has DRAMATICALLY increased in the last few years. While you can't spend it everywhere and on everything yet, you can buy many real things with it, be it in dedicated BTC stores or mainstream chains that started to accept BTC or other coins. So, if you want to use it as a real currency, you can. The increased adoption is just not the thing that makes the news, it's the skyrocketing prices. Thus I would say it's an awareness issue at most.
I LOVE BTC ....IT WILL PREVAIL
My grandmother lived most of her life around people afraid of spending their money and she always told me "your money is worth nothing if you aren't willing to spend it." That's a philosophy I really want to take to heart. I got into bitcoin relatively late (the price was around $300) and I spent pretty much all of what I bought on random things because I was fascinated by it as a CURRENCY. Sure, if I had hodled it as an investment I would have a lot more money than I do right now, but I also would have forsaken the core principle of what I was interested in. My interest in crypto has always been in regards to the way it can revolutionise the financial world and I can only hope that with time more people will come around to see it that way too.
I see bitcoin becoming currency when we have the option to get payed from our job in bitcoin. I dont think doge will make it to the final 3 coins. Why do you you like doge? Why do you think its better then BTC or ETH? Sould i buy some?
I like DOGE because it's relatively stable. It has it's swings, but usually no more than +/- 10 percent on any given day, and usually much less than that. It is slowly and steadily rising as well. Whenever I have some leftover dust from an exchange, I usually put it in DOGE for long term storage
I would like to see a future of AI multiwallets that allow users to transact seamlessly in many cryptos, if you have a big purchase like a house, use your BTC, the morning newspaper STEEM.
There is no need for one crypto to rule them all, having many provides transaction volume space, redundancy and fault tolerance.
I think it all starts by the financial gain someone could make. This was certainly true in my case. However I found myself to be quit interested in the technology behind it. Financial gain is the main motive to start with cryptos. However in my case the motivation switched to a believe that all these developments are defintely the future...I surely want to be part of this altough I'm a crypto noob...Making a quick buck is not for me, I suck as a trader.
Revolutions do not happen overnight. I know you know this but, it is quite prevalent that most want things now. As far as I'm concerned, we're (cryptocurrencies) are doing just fine. Why? Because it's out there now. It's working to a greater or lesser degree. There is no turning back and the old way of doing business (literally) is dying. I seem to have a longer outlook, I guess. I could care less about what I can buy and how fast with my crypto. I care about (hopefully) what the next generation will experience as a currency and the relinquishing hold of the current powers-that-be in finance and all monetary (and other) matters. It will die eventually. There is too much communication availability now, worldwide, regarding all things large, small, important and trivial. This is slowly becoming a new (or different) civilization. Whether good, bad or indifferent. Dynasties will fall and new ones will take their place. Many of us old folks are damn tired of the few attempting to control and pen-in the majority. Now, it will stop. It just may take a while.
With regard to people having lost the true meaning of crypto; it doesn't matter. This is the Wild West / confusion stage. It'll settle eventually. You or I may not see it. Your children hopefully will.
I like that you have an alternative perspective on the matter. Until I got the end where you plugged Dogecoin... A blockchain that creates 10,000 new coins per minute! How is that a solution to fiat?
Also, I think it's pretty narrow-minded to to look at cryptos as mainly a credit card for immediate transactions. The block chain has so many potential uses that we haven't even imagined yet, no sense in trying to put it in a neat little box as primarily a currency. I think we will see a coin that becomes the daily transaction coin as each token/coin find their place in a respective eco-system, one will emerge as the ideal coin for transactions, I've not really looked into Lite coin, Z-cash or Monero, If anyone is knowledgeable on these, how do you think they could fair as currency replacements?
Like your post.....but looking at "big world changing technologies" they play out over time. When the internet came out , what was the big killer app --- email...and Netscape at best. Fast forward 20+ years and the internet is being used in ways they never dreamed of -- this is BTC and ETH and the blockchain. Let them mature. I hear what you are saying for sure....but we really are in 1992 again.
Awesome piece! Great read coming from a different perspective that I'm sure most people aren't thinking or considering. I'm the same way, in a way. I use bitcoin to purchase products and services as much as I can already. Usually they merchants you purchase from will give you huge discounts to pay with bitcoin too! Revolution now!
How would you consider bitcoin's performance as a currency being right now? It's getting really bad, in my opinion.
It's gotten worse. It was really really good for a long time. First time I realized that there might be a problem was when a merchant, whom I had been purchasing products off of with bitcoin for almost a year, told me he wasn't accepting bitcoin anymore because the fees had become too outrageous. Those fees come from the people screwing with the market, fluxing the value every day by hundreds of dollars. But whatever makes that quick buck.........
Great piece thank you for sharing.
Please everybody! TO THE MOON!
Nailed it! This is why I argue for a new Global Commons type non-debt currency; a public utility type currency issued to all evenly at creation. I think positivemoney has the same type of idea....Yes, I should have bought BT in 2011 at Waves in Vancouver and didn't, so I slave away to The Fiat Currency masters still who use every method of force and coercion to maintain their ill-gotten gains.....
Right on brother. This has been my feeling for a while now. I'm more than happy to ride the train up, but people have seriously forgotten what the point of the technology is. We are currently investing crazy sums into already inferior technology. I think the current issues will improve soon enough, but it needs the selective "feeding frenzy" to get more investment as well as mature models taking over in the space.
On the plus side, it's providing a lot of new wealth to people that otherwise would never have had a chance to achieve it. It's also a big carrot to draw the masses into the space which is also needed to get them away from the government fiat models.
You might find my previous similar posts here, here, and here interesting for a read as well since they cover a very similar line of reasoning. Happy to get your input.
Thanks. So true. It is all speculation now. Followed.
My latest work : https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@hgmsilvergold/us-dollar-weakness-is-driving-higher-bitcoin-and-ethereum-prices
Wow
You had bitcoin at $10, but true you didn't know it will go up to $3000, what a pain
I am holing doge too but just 100.000 as I have diversified my cryptocurrency holding
Have a lovely time
I am your new follower
Best Regards Andrei
I guess we should just hold onto what we have and hope that one day it reaches where we want it to be in terms of investment
Hot Doges had me cracking up!
Great read
This is a BOLD prediction. This is my first time hearing this side of the story. There's definitely some reason to it and it makes sense. It'll be interesting to see where we go from here!
Sounds to me like you got a good grasp of the situation. You really should consider using #coagorism. (More info in my post)
great post!
to be honest i want a freedom revolution, not a financial one.
also your presuming you will always be able to get the ingredients to be able to still make a hot dog. i would say you need to start thinking bigger picture ;)
Interesting :D
I think that we have something even more larger to come.