In a month from today, April 12th of the year 1955, sixty-two years ago the Polio Vaccination would be announced. Jonas Salk the researcher was named as the “Miracle Worker”. A program was created consisting of 20,000 physicians, 64,000 school personal, 220,000 volunteers who would inoculate 1,800,000 children from Polio. April 12th became a national holiday, and many countries would then soon follow namely: Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, West Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium.
Today, for all practical purposes Polio has been eradicated from the face of the earth. But to what end? What was the trials and tribulations and why must a cure be found? By-the-way, what does any of this with cryptocurrencies?
Let’s review in a little more depth. Jonas Salk was considered by most to be the earliest Bio-tech Entrepreneur, a researcher at the University of Pittsburg, he gained his funding from the “National foundation for Infantile Paralysis” – later to be known as the March of Dimes. His field trials continued for years with no success, he tested vacations on himself, co-workers, and family members. Nothing worked.
One day, with energy and money depleted he realized that he would have to give up. He took a walk to the park having to think about how he was going to tell his family, friends, investors, and co-workers. But as he was sitting in a park and watching children play, he realized how important his work was. He realized that there would be hundreds of thousands of children and adults who would never walk again and whose bodies would be paralyzed. He realized the enormity of his responsibility, and so he returned to work continuing his task with renewed vigor." * [He must find a cure, and he did]
In Jonas’ scenario he had to try harder, and in the end resiliency prevailed, a vaccination created, and the world around us changed forever.
Although, Polio was treated in the 1950’s, the Biotech industry wasn’t founded until late as 1976! At Kleiner-Perkins: Robert Swanson** and Herbert Boyer were the first to form an idea that would analyze proteins in animal-based cells. They original met at a house, and took the conversation across the street to a bar, and built an approach on a napkin. Later, the company Genentech would be formed. After 40 years of trials, cures, and new approaches to large and small molecule drugs we have a well-established bio-tech industry.
How about cryptocurrencies? In juxtaposition, Bitcoin was founded in 2009 by Satoski Nakamoto, who published the invention on 31 October 2008 to a cryptography mailing list in a research paper called "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".
We are clearly in the “early days” of cryptocurrencies, many people state that there is an enormous potential ahead of us. But is that really true? Will cryptocurrencies live and breathe life decades from now?
Everything in life depends on situation and the options available, and as we traverse life we need resiliency to form the basis of our results. If we can see the same attributes with Jonas Salk and the biotech industry as we see with an emerging cryptocurrency industry then we can start to plant the soil for a new industry that will changes our lives forever. Will we see those resiliency, sacred commitment, an oath, and sacrifices? Please comment.
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I believe Cryptocurrency has peaked. This does not mean that Bitcoin price will not continue to rise as it will keep being traded for a while. But it's use has peaked. Bitcoin is the main currency for those who want to buy undetected but I do not see a whole lot of new merchant adoption in the future for the same reason, it' has turned into some kind of dirty money. Its real contribution is the blockchain technology which will keep being used in many more innovative ways. But as a crypto currency it has peaked.
it's been three months since i wrote this article. I've seen more expansion at the early onset here, then collectively in the Dot.com days. perhaps i'll write an article to compare and contrast.