One of the biggest things holding back the cryptocurrency revolution is us, the current users. The reason is that due to the sheer immaturity of most of the participants (no matter their age), the focus tends to favor pettiness and personal vendettas, rather than the development needed to drive the industry forward and compete with the big boys. Squabbling over pennies when there are 7 billion sets of eyes and the value they consume on offer.
Just remember that the entire crypto market is worth about about 265 billion dollars, which is 1/25th of the world's largest managed fund with BlackRock which is worth 6.5 trillion. The second largest pool is managed by Vanguard, which is valued at 5.5 trillion. Those two funds combined can half the National debt of the United States - not that they would - as they benefit from keeping that debt growing.
But, instead of focusing on building up what is effectively a cottage industry in comparison to the real markets, the participants bicker and argue and compete for the scraps. Sure, individuals within the crypto industry can do very well, but often it is to the detriment of the industry itself, one that could support millions of people to do very well.
It seems that all to often, it is amateurs playing a caricature of business executive, as startup entrepreneur, as venture capitalist. Having money might qualify the game, but maybe it depends on how that money was obtained - was it through real business acumen and hard work, or right place at the right time, dumb luck?
I wonder how long it would take a company like Rovio who created Angry Birds to develop a polished app for blockchain? Will we ever find out? Perhaps, perhaps not - because for these types of companies to even give it a look in requires there to be enough value to make it worth their time. This gives a little space for the early adopters to build and develop market real estate and define the terminology, the ideals, the direction. If they do a good job, they will eventually have to compete with the major traditional players, if not, they won't need to worry about them at all, as they won't arrive.
Every industry goes through the startup phase, the non-believers, the criticism, the FUD, the FOMO, the hardcore backers, the flakes - this is the process of maturing an industry, putting in the hard yards and it can take decades to become established, to be considered "a player" in the world economy. Every industry that has failed to take hold in the past has failed because it wasn't able to develop a critical mass of support where it could stand on its own feet, build its own gravity and ecosystem around it and thrive.
At the moment, Bitcoin is an oddity, a curiosity, a potential candidate to keep an eye on, but not get too excited about at this point - from the perspective of the trillion dollar players. They know there is plenty of potential, but there is very little incentive for the large players to do the ground work themselves when there is so much risk of being innovated out of the market as it is all digital, forkable, unlimited.
Currently though we are limited, not by them, by us. Limited in our willingness to commit, limited in our ability to connect and collaborate, limited by our small-minded, small-scale perspective on what success looks like. So far, the crypto markets have made some people rich, but that is not industry success and could still happen under outcomes of failure. I wonder how many of the Lambo! rich have kept their crypto and how much of it is in banks in the Cayman islands, squirreled away in the system they were pretending to escape?
Growing up is a process though and it seems that many in the crypto industry are looking for the easiest paths for themselves, which tends to be one that works against the industries. They want their ego fed, while the ideals required to inspire uptake and adoption wither toward death - I want it now, even if it costs everything later.
Isn't it frustrating to see so much potential for global improvement be lost to shortsightedness? To have a "product" that can change the world in so many ways, not even make a dent in the economy, not even get a toe in the door? Well, when the industry is more alike to homeless people paid to fight for change, I am not sure that the industry is going to be taken seriously anytime soon. I hope that I am wrong though, so I work toward some kind of success - whether it is realized in my lifetime or not, is yet to be seen.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Homeless people fighting for change.
Love it. Love every word. How can we claim to be better than them when we hold ourselves to such low standards?
This is the success of the programming, even when free to act differently, we don't. I liken it to flea training, we have hit our head on the lid of the jar often enough that most of us will never jump higher again.
We are in crypto where the internet was in the early 1990s. Way before the dotcom bubble. Even though crypto has seen bubbles, it just comes down to the nature of coins which are only tradable, while internet itself was not tradable before big companies appeared in the stock market.
We need at least 5 years before seeing some maturity. We also need technological advancements with regards to scaling (especially on the hardware side in my opinion).
Messageboards and images that take 2 minutes to load? :D
Yes for sure, speculation on projects is quite meaningless in my opinion.
Yep, I think that there are massive scalability issues coming, but at the same time, they aren't likely to get really considered until there are more participants. Nothing drives innovation like missed profits :)
I agree with that. But I also don't. The people have been victims of a flawed monetary policy, rather, a dollar hegemony that has been the bane of humanity's collective existence since the malthusian trap.
I agree that this immaturity is holding the market back, but it's also giving more people time to buy in.
This is the only event in history where wealth is being transferred to the have nots of society. I am bullish beyond belief!
What I find interesting is how few people are actually willing to put even a little money into their future.
So true! What they fail to understand though, solely focusing on price, is that its meant to be trust less. All the things we hate about money we can love about btc and the like. But rarely does the conversation escape price in the mainstream.. if it does it is limited to the criminal use case. Smh
but seriously look what happens to many lottery winners.
I always hear stories about the ones that screw it up, but the ones that do well are silent - wonder why?
The dunning-krueger effect! Lol
"Sure, individuals within the crypto industry can do very well, but often it is to the detriment of the industry itself, one that could support millions of people to do very well."
This is so true and sad at the same time. Still, we are only at the beginning of the journey. There is a lot to learn and improve.
I hope that we can all get there one day and bring many more with - but at this rate - we will all be dead of old age before we start mass adoption :D
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STOPDo not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:
#Posh
I agree with you 100%. But, I think to talk about this in the world of cryptocurrency, where 98% live in a world of dreams and hopes is not the best place.
Payments under this post are confirmation of that.:)
Perhaps your realism may seem pessimistic to many :)
But,I agree with you 100% :)
I am optimistic about the future, but I am not so confident that most of the people that are here in crypto now are the ones that will mainstream it.
This summarises the situation quite well, I think. It's not easy to disrupt an industry, especially when that disruption aims to flip our entire understanding of how the economy works. This is made even harder by those who squabble over petty disputes.
My crypto is better than your crypto, and this mentality of immature, childish infighting only serves as entertainment for those outside of it. How can consumers and corporations ever take us seriously when cryptocurrency enthusiasts are not focused enough to drive change?
Not all enthusiasts are like that, in fact, most enthusiasts and proponents are quite the opposite. But it's those few that are crying louder above all else. It was only a few days ago when J.K. Rowling asked on Twitter for the meaning of Bitcoin, and how to explain it to her.
The tirade of mysoginistic comments, the toxic demeanor, and the "wow, how can you not understand something so simple" statements were just painful to watch. Crypto will no doubt be the future, but it seems like we're offsetting that by a few years longer than it should've been.
Cheers, and thanks for sharing the thought provoking post :-)