That was what started me on the path to studying and understanding how blockchain works and why it is such a huge deal.
Blockchain’s main purpose is to securely transfer value without the need for an intermediary. This isn’t a stock or a traditional investment. In fact it’s something that’s never been seen in the history of the world. Throughout the history of money one would need SOME 3rd party (Gov., banks, etc...) to verify a transaction or to give the currency value. Blockchain, or more specifically cryptocurrency completely eliminates this aspect of currency.
That being said, there is no assets or company backing (some exceptions) any crypto on the market. There is no earnings report that estimates the value; there is no technical analysis in the world that can predict the price; there is no relationship between a stock/bond and a cryptocurrency.
These virtual assets are a utility.
Utility in economics is the amount of time and money you save by choosing a certain financial path. For day to day consumers we want to maximize our utility I.e. get the most bang for our buck. Large corporations and governments would like to minimize it to cut out whatever that is not needed to increase the bottom line on their income statement.
These currencies not only allow society to easily optimize utility for large entities, but for individuals as well.
Corporations that solely exist to transfer/store value (visa, western union, Wells Fargo, etc...) marginally decrease our optimal utility and suck the liquidity out of an economy. I don’t want to seem like I am attacking these corporations but this is literally the definition of a parasite. Which is an entity that receives benefits from a host while the host is in detriment. These corporations leech this money out of the economy. Sure their workers are paid and this increases their marginal prosperity to consume, but how many jobs are lost to efforts of cost reduction? How much investment is left on the sidelines due to fees and other stipulations these intermediaries create?
If this leakage of utility and liquidity is patched our global economy will operate at a greater efficiency than it currently is; as there is no forced induction of funds into an industry that’s only function is to transfer/store value.
Since its established that this IS the future of finance, based on my extremely simplified explanation, the only question now is the question of rate of adoption.
I have 3 brief points to make:
1.) Adoption curves do exist and they are found in a every thing that is used today. Cars, phones, the internet, Reddit, etc. All of these utilities follow the adoption curve (or S-curve) almost 1:1.
2.) Fractals are a branch of mathematics that explain the bigger picture by looking at smaller portions of the whole. (“As above, so below”) This is rather difficult to explain, but it is basically repetition that grows with scale.
3.) Crypto is nowhere near full adoption, we are in the mania phase of early adoption where all the applications of the technology are being tried and vetted for use in the world. This aspect is known as the Gartner Hype Cycle. With these points, one puts together a puzzle. Since Crypto is so volatile and there is little knowledge in the world of it, along with patterns of repetition that appear to be fractal, we know this is only the beginning of a revolution.
I believe we are in the beginning stages of the FIRST investable adoption curve to ever face humanity and the research I have gathered thus far supports this thesis immaculately.
I know seeing these prices short-term hurt you greatly and it feels terrible thinking you made a bad choice. But time heals all and you and I will be the winners in the end.
This is the internet of value being created right in front of us. In fact blockchain will do to finance, what the internet did for telecommunications.
Invest in fundamentals, believe in yourself, understand the technology, and don’t ever listen to the media (banks have a lot of money to spread fear to eliminate a threat).
Sometime this year, we will have another bull run, and this one will not be as large percentage wise. But the value in fiat will be exponentially increased.
Much love, good luck, and HODL.