Things are a total mess. What the heck is going on with cryptocurrency? Price speculation aside, where is the industry truly going?
We see calls from Hester Pierce aka "Crypto Mom" for clarity with regulation. India is looking to ban cryptocurrency. Many feel that the US Government will step in if Bitcoin gets too big. There was even an article that claimed the government will stop companies from holding reserves in Bitcoin as opposed to cash.
Of course, we see companies such a Tesla starting to get involved. Wall Street firms were circling for the last year. Many banks are now positioning themselves to offer custodial services. Even the City of Miami approved a proposal that will allow it to hold a portion of its reserves in Bitcoin.
There is a tug-o-war taking place. It is hard to tell which direction things are going.
A large part of the negativity could simply be FUD. We know that the establishment does not like change, at least not to the degree it hinders their power. For this reason, they are going to do all they can to slow things down.
Source
So what does the future of cryptocurrency hold?
This is something that is hard for many to envision. It is not easy to look out into the future. There is always a lot of uncertainty even from people who focus upon technology and where things are going.
However, we can draw from some trends that are obvious to everyone to see how things could unfold over the next couple decades. This will provide us with possible insight as to what is taking place.
The Digital World
We have little doubt that more of our lives are digital. The world around us is rapidly becoming filled with more bits. Data is exploding with us producing even more on a daily basis as time goes by.
Many terms are bantered about: Web 3.0; Industrial Revolution 4.0; Humanity 5.0. Whatever phrase is used, we can see the world is embarking upon a series of changes that will radically affect our daily lives. Personally, this looks like a great deal of this can be completed within 10-15 years.
A digital world opens up the door for enormous expansion. Speed and other limits tend to be minimized. In other words, things can move very quickly. This only increases as computation and communication systems become more advanced.
Thus, we are residing in an area there the traditional "laws" do not apply. This is a radical change for all involved.
Disruption
Here is a topic that should be fairly obvious. Disruption is something that always took place. However, for most of humanity, it operated at a rather slow pace. Today, this simply is not the case.
Entire industries can be eliminated in half a decade. The Internet showed how long established companies could be wiped out in a matter of a few years. Certainly, many adapted which prolonged their survival. Nevertheless, when we look at industries such as newspapers, the majority were wiped out.
With the trend of increased computation, we are seeing "smarter" systems developed. This means that the pace of change is also accelerating. Here is where disruption becomes increasingly important.
What use to take 5 years can now happen much quicker. We will get to the point where a multi-billion dollar industry can be interrupted in an afternoon. That is how quickly the world will be operating in a decade or so.
Therefore, we know there are two sides to this equation: those disrupting and those being disrupted.
The only question is what side does something fall on.
Cryptocurrency Is Disruptive
Cryptocurrency and all that is associated with it is a completely disruptive. It is an industry that is similar to technology, it spans all sectors. Crypto can apply to anything from retail to social media to government. There is little that will not be affected by what is being developed these days.
Since it falls on the side of disrupting, the likelihood of it disappearing is minimal. At the same time, like most disruptive forces, it cannot be controlled. This put institutions like governments and major corporations that prefer the status quo in a bind. They want to control all aspects of what is taking place yet they simply are overpowered. It seems hard to see in the early stages but we have a history of forces that did exactly that.
Remember when they tried to control the automobile with silly regulations like having to walk in front of it carrying a flag to alert people? How successful was that?
Disruption works outside the establishment. It is not something that asks permission. For this reason, cryptocurrency is exploding. The key to success is simply the network effect being activated. Ironically, people do not really need to embrace purchasing something different. Instead, they simply change some of their digital activity to enter.
This is cause for major upheaval. Again, on a daily basis, we cannot really see it. However, over time, as we advance further along, it does become evident.
Digital Money
The aforementioned fact that we are moving deeper into the digital world is the reason why cryptocurrency will become a larger part of our lives. There is no reason to hang onto the present financial for eternity since that was developed at a time when we were physical in nature.
Automation is something that is also rapidly approaching. Here again, we cannot deny this fact. Whether it is AI or robotics, the idea of machines handling more is upon us. This is creating the realm that many term "The Internet of Things (IoT)". With automation comes a completely different set of rules as compared to what we experienced before.
This, too, is disrupting the present establishment. Those in power now simply do not know how to handle it. We are embarking upon uncharted waters, something that few will openly admit.
Many are looking to people for answers who have none. Sadly, this is going to result in a huge letdown.
Cryptocurrency is going to provide answers simply because it is a living, growing, expanding organism. Each day, it gets larger, targeting more areas of life. This means that more is being disrupted on a daily basis, without most realizing it.
The result is that, as crypto expands, something else is taking the hit. As we become more digitized, our physical realm entities carry less importance. The governments of the world, who are operating with never seen power, are in trouble. What role do they serve in a world where most people operate on networks. As digitization becomes more important, our physical overlords become less so.
Money is changing and that is affecting everything. The rules of the Internet do not adhere to laws that were written 50 or 75 years ago. Ergo, now that we see this applied to money, age old monetary and economic concepts are being obliterated. Once again, few people are realizing this.
And here is where we find many of the FUDsters. While a lot of them are not out to intentionally sabotage what is happening, the fact that they have little understanding is what leads to their viewpoints. It is here were they are trying to apply knowledge that worked for decades yet has no bearing on what is being created.
It is akin to a vet from 110 years ago applying knowledge about horses to an automobile. Do you think that individual would have a clue about how a car works? Obviously not. Yet today, we have economists, money managers, and bankers who are espousing things about cryptocurrency using knowledge they gained from a system that is rapidly disappearing.
This is what is causing all of the confusion. Those who embrace the new models being generated will realize how far off these people are. That is why the "experts" are quickly losing validation. They are being proven to be repeatedly wrong.
The next few years are going to make it abundantly clear what is taking place. We already see how this disruptive force is already worth trillions. As an industry, that is enormous. Consider how it is already rivaling the construction industry in the U.S. and starting to set its sites on healthcare.
No longer is this a niche market that can be overlooked.
The sad part for the establishment, this is only going to continue growing at an accelerated pace.
That is the future of cryptocurrency.
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Probably Ban it like India even though their fiat is turning to total shit. Probably get their Plunge protection team to buy Bitcoin with printed dollars. Who knows.
Many people are afraid of embracing something they don't know, don't understand, and that seems TOO complicated. In the old system it was clear. You needed a bank account, and you got money from the bank. With those papers and coins in your wallet you paid everywhere and no one asked questions because everyone understood this system. A 100 bill was never worth more, never less. The government / central banks had assigned that value to that piece of paper and that was clear to everyone. With crypto it all works slightly differently. Firstly, you have your own wallet under your own management. You must ensure that no one else can do anything with this, but also that you do not lose your access. And then there is the volatile part, one day a Bitcoin is worth 40K USD. But the other day that could be 4K USD less. A lot of people find that difficult to understand. In addition, they do not understand that dollars and euros in your bank account are just as virtual, and even worse that you do not even manage them yourself, but that the bank says "You can have so much of that because you have been granted that".
People who are not in crypto often do not dare to step in because it is too difficult to understand. AND because it is often dismissed as illegal.
Perhaps this will change at a rapid pace now that big companies like Tesla are getting in.
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Yes the fact that the politicians and bankers are still calling it illegal is a joke. Look at the USD and how much illegal stuff is done with that currency.
It is a joke that people still listen to these fools.
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Unknown makes unloved, and people like to complain, but they often follow what they know like a flock of sheep.
I agree, the whole politics is becoming a bigger joke, unfortunately also an expensive joke.
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I do think crypto and the digital world are the future. However I think it will probably take around a decade for everything to play out. Governments are printing money endlessly and they are ripping off their citizens. Without sound economic lives, people will turn towards alternative sources like crypto. As this happens, the faith in fiat currencies will drop and unless the government can bring it back, it will be the death of a currency.
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At least in the U.S. folk around me are already aware that their paychecks aren't going up but the price of milk is... and then drops... and then goes back up.
That kind of volatility of consumer prices is wrecking their faith in fiat currency. The idea of getting rich makes them listen, but the idea of understanding the value of a thing is what gets them to hodl.
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It isnt the currency that is volatile in that instance, it is the supply that we are seeing.
In the food arena, major shortages are starting to arise. This is going to send prices flying.
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While you're correct that shortages will affect things, I picked my example of milk intentionally: its supply hasn't fluctuated much recently, and I live in a place where we produce a lot of our own food. Already the volatility of a dollar's buying power has been a discussion at farmers market meetings.
True. The wide price changes only shows how fragile the supply system is. If supply was not an issue, the huge fluctuations in prices would not occur as often.
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The collapse in confidence in government is already starting. Once that happens, the entire system can be at risk. Sovereign wealth funds will disappear, almost overnight.
We are seeing a lot of turmoil in Europe as the confidence there erodes. If Biden and the US follows that path, they will get the same result.
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It already is starting. However, there is not a good viable mainstream crypto currency as a substitute. I can only see chaos if the dollar goes down before a suitable replacement appears.
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Fortunately, the dollar will be the last one to go. People are down on the dollar but when the others go, like the Yen and EURO, we will see traders turn to the USD.
Personally, I see the government crisis occur in the EU or the Mid East first.
Those are my hot spots if I had to choose.
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A new mindset is needed and not everyone is capable of changing, or ready to learn. I know one thing, we need to learn every day and not cling spasmodically to what was good yesterday. Adapt or die.
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Technology has a history of making that point true. Either change or get eliminated.
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Those countries that try to hold this technology back will regret it in the end. The genie is out of the bottle and can't be Stopped, better to work with it than fight a losing battle.
It is like trying to ban the wheel.
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Cant hold any technology back, no matter who tries to stop it.
You would think this lesson was learned long ago. It was not.
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Crypto is definitely hitting the mainstream and there are pluses and minuses to that. I remember back in 2016-17 a lot of us thought blockchain/crypto would revolutionize the world and usher in a brand new decentralized society. Some friends and I were even writing a fictionalized series that we hoped to sell to Netflix based on that premise.
Years later the phenomena is slowly changing the world and is offering some (at least for a few more years anyway) a path to financial freedom but not exactly how we originally envisioned. I think the grand vision of sweeping societal changes has been lost on a lot of the normies who are investing in the space now, many of them just see crypto as another way to make fast money.
IMO, crypto/blockchain will eventually be adopted by all big corporations and governments. It will be used a tool to run businesses, and commerce in general, more efficiently. The whole backbone of our society, everything from the power grid to autonomous car networks to national digital currencies will run on some version of blockchain tech.
As more big corporate players enter the crypto market the volatility will decrease, as will the chance to make huge gains. Many of the alts will fade away and the entire traditional stock market, as we know it today, will be retooled so you'll be buying company tokens instead of shares of stock. I might be way off base in my predictions but it'll be interesting to see what the future holds.
tl;dr: Don't forget NFTs!
I see something very similar. Blockchain, as a method of handling data, simply solves too many problems to not be integrated into our handling of data, as a society.
Where I disagree is the idea that the alts will die away. I think because of how transferrable liquidity is between coins, there's very little reason not to add new tokens: as you say, for new companies, new neighborhoods, etc.
What will change is the disconnect of these tokens from the established tokens, but we've already kind of seen that: many new tokens run on Ether.
The implication of this I think we're going to see explored this year: how easy it now is to take something non-fungible but tokenized and derive a market value that can be understood by two individuals, buying and selling the thing, right there.
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NFTs are really a storm that is brewing which will change a lot of things. We are going to see a massive explosion in that arena, which is going to catch a lot of the existing system off guard.
The ability to tokenize, thus monetize, just about anything, by anyone, is something they do not know how to handle. This is going to create major problems for all these types of entities.
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I mean I'll be honest - I'm aware of the technology and I'm having a hard time even getting a handle on the possibilities, so I can plan my place in the changes!
It is truly impossible to keep up on. There is so much taking place that even paying attention makes it tough to grasp fully what is taking place.
The only thing we can hope is to get general trends in place. We are in a period of acceleration that makes things very difficult to wrap out minds around.
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We often overestimate the impact of technology in the short term and under estimate it in the long term.
We still are in the early stages but people expected the 2017 time period to be the game changer. We spent 4 years building infrastructure. That is needed for more to be built on top of it.
This is all a process and we have a lot more people involved than we did 4 years ago.
But yes, this is about changing the world, not adding a few dollars to one's bank account (although that will take place for many people).
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Well, with the Nigerian bank squeezing its heels and banning, the countries will start, I understand that India is also on the same path, but if the US does it I think it will become something like an off-base item.
What is in store for us, if we knew I would even sell my pants to buy crypto but since I'm not sure, I'd better leave them like that when this fails at least I'll have pants to wear, jaaaaaaaaaaa
10 to 15 years if they are around the corner and I do not know how we are going to be in those times, unless a war comes in which it is possible that they blow up the entire infrastructure and we will be left without the internet disconnected and thus we would return to the dark ages but I don't think that will happen or maybe it will, nobody believed that the world would stop for a few months and look at last year with the covid-19 so as we say anything can happen, or we become technology completely or we return to the caves .
The good thing is that millennians are still taking the foundations right now they are taking part of the wealth and when they do they will be in another position to make perhaps good decisions to support technological disruption and that would greatly benefit humanity, hopefully.
Yes, today we have many specialists in money but many still do not see the potential that we have here, they have stayed with the physical part but for now but they will come quietly, time will come is our best ally.
Greetings.
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Countries are going to fall into the tendency to want to stifle it but will it work? Are the Nigerians going to listen? Seems they are still on here each day doing what they always did.
In the end, stopping technological progress never works. It did not work for the newspapers, record companies or movie stores.
It will not work this time.
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I think you make a really good point about the two camps that many people who are not involved in crypto falling into. Those who truly want to stifle it and those who just don't know any better. Thankfully (?) I think that second group is much larger than the first group and hopefully through education we can change some of those attitudes and beliefs that cause negative side effects through the crypto world. Certainly they should be much more easily swayed than those who are dead set against it.
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It all comes down to the speed in the Great Race. The two sides are pitted against each other, although many entities are switching sides. Tesla is obviously one on the crypto side right now as are many Wall Street institutions. They are not about to let the government walk all over their investments.
We just need to keep pushing things ahead at a great pace. The more we do, the more that we have to offer people and insulate ourselves against what is coming.
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I just saw today that Ark dumped a bunch more money into Grayscale.
We are at the early stages of adoption. Next step is regulation and proper taxation.
btc and cryptos are here to stay and they can't do anything about it, especially at this point. Maybe some new regulation and taxes but only that. After so many big players are involved it's hard to "contain it"
Maybe it's easier in countries like Nigeria but still, they can use a vpn and problem solved!
I also hate all those "influencers and experts" that just tweet and talk about btc and cryptos manipulated people. They act like they know it all but they have no clue. I guess i will write a post about them later on today :P cause i just wrote one!
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What bugs me is all the crypto "influencers" who talk about crypto yet do are not a part of it. They are talking about crypto on a web 2.0 platform only. They are not involved themselves in the industry anymore than a newscaster is actually making the news.
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As long as people are worshiping them, believing they know everything, they are going to do it as they get attention and probably get paid for it too.
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That exactly. In a way, it's like people reading the news, without being where it happens. Plus they are banking on it.
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The most valuable commodity in the world is the peoples' attention, a nice quote I heard this morning.
We are moving towards the "attention economy". Where people put their eyeballs has value.
That is what will make Hive successful. We are developing things which will bring people's attention.
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exactly! It's all about making quick money without actually understanding the radical change it can bring
@taskmaster4450 GOD bless you for this great post of yours......
This is the part I enjoyed reading most...."Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency and all that is associated with it is a completely disruptive. It is an industry that is similar to technology, it spans all sectors. Crypto can apply to anything from retail to social media to government. There is little that will not be affected by what is being developed these days."
I totally agree with your point of view concerning that....
With that a new generation of experts is being born
Great read !
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“Banning” by Govt’ entities only shows the people there hypocrisy. They say markets should be free but do the opposite. In the end I believe crypto will eat everything. The rubicon was passed years ago.
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Government hypocrisy? Surely you jest?
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The article you referenced about the government stepping in and limiting the ability to hold as reserve currency is absolutely terrifying. I wonder if that will be a breaking point for people to recognize the government is holding too much power over us...
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People are clueless and listen to what the media tells then, which is just a mouthpiece for those pushing the agenda.
Look at how people swallowed the entire COVID situation without even questioning it.
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WTF. Ridiculous. Well then maybe they should ban companies from holding gold then too. If governments didn't constantly debase cash then maybe people and companies wouldn't constantly be trying to hedge with other assets.
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I know you're not a big fan of looking at prices but I must share my joy of seeing hive pumping :D
Good for you. Does that mean you will depressed and this blockchain is shit if the price drops like a rock?
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Nope It will just be easier to accumulate hive :P ( didn't expect that didn't you ?)
This year should be rather interesting and the next after that. It's going to outline the path we are on for Crypto and how it's going to shape. I don't see how governments won't step in when they start risking their fiat currency which is going to make for some seriously wild rides in crypto land prices. We saw this back in 2017-2018 when things started to get big they put their foot down or just screwed around making things super confusing on the tax front to the point most people just gave up.
That's kind of the thing with the US government at least. They screw around a lot and for a LONG time making no real judgment calls which makes people back off because of the uncertainty.
I do know for sure though we are headed to an all digital currency and FIAT paper money will be phased out. Be that in cryptos existing today but most likely one created by the government and controlled by the government.
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They do have tactics they can use except with each passing day it gets harder for them to pull off.
How are they going to deal with all these NFTs that keep popping up all over the place? How are they going to deal with the fact that uniswap is doing record numbers?
That is all outside their reach.
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"If I had asked people what would they want they'd say faster horses". This quote of Henry Ford offers perspective of where we are, once again, in the history of the human kind evolution. The FUDsters just wish for faster horses. Crypto and the tokenization of everything is inevitable. At some point they will either embrace it or we will simply fork out of thei system. When more merchants will accept crypto as a form of payment we will basically won't need the current monetary system.
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The personal computer was first viewed by many as an advanced typewriter.
History is full of people who looked at technology and were clueless as to what they are looking at.
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The pattern keeps on repeating itself.
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It keeps repeating itself and we are best to understand it.
We can put it into practice today.
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anybody have an idea of why Hive went up 80% today?!
More buyers than sellers.
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That much I reckoned :D
The establishment is in a flat panic right now and will try all the tricks to slow this down. This is going to get really interesting over the next few months as thigs change so fast in crypto land.
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Development speed is the key. Government can only operate so quickly. Development can take place at amazing speeds (across the board).
We just need to get a few more pieces in place then start to attract tens of thousands of new users in a short period of time. This will really help to further insulate the industry against the opposing forces out there.
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Of course you will hear all sorts of murmurs all the time but making moves to kill crypto would be very premature right now. Central banks have precious few effective tools to influence the economy if none. Central bankers want to learn from financial innovation in crypto to see if they can discover better tools and processes. They have some worries but I don't think the US is about to stomp on crypto any times soon. Developing countries maybe if their financial systems are in much worse shape.
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All I can say
those people lost
control to the #wallstreetbet folks.
It is happening with crypto and now they see it
clearer.
More will take their financial matter personally.
It is just bump in the road
for this disruptive new phenomenon
Hold tight, bumpy ride ahead.
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How did they lose control with the WallStreetBet folks?
You arent proclaiming that was all due to a few reddit people. It already came out that major hedge funds profited big time from going long on those stocks.
It was actually other hedge funds that burned the shorts.
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Might not the elites simply end up owning thee lions' share of crypto in the end?
They can own Bitcoin since it is limited in quantity. However, for the rest, if they try to assume control, we can fork things out just like Hive did with Steem and leave them holding the bag.
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
At the moment, I'd say things look pretty good. I say that, based on the old Wall Street truism "The market climbs a wall of worry."
As long as everyone is concerned about regulations and bad things happening, and laws and legislation and problems, chances are we'll keep plugging right along.
We've already passed the "too late to stuff the genie back in the bottle point" and are heading towards the "too big to ignore" point... which gets closer and closer, every time a large corporation or bank adds BTC to their holdings.
I see another big step coming when the idea of "privately funded crypto-based basic income" starts to get some traction. Projects like GoodDollar are prototyping that kind of concept right now.
But you're quite right, we can't use traditional metrics to measure a completely new concept.
=^..^=
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There are so many things happening at this moment that it is difficult to see everything with due clarity.
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Really good article. The writing is on the wall.
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I guess it isn't inevitable that gvt interferes with crypto somewhere in the future. Some big traditional businessmen will surely oppose to crypto currency that forex traders might move to crypto. hahaha.