Late night thoughts: Crypto threatening ontological security

[angelicagalvez]

Why are people so reluctant to accept cryptocurrency?
I’ve been wondering. Of course, there’s different explanations to this.

_{https://blog.equinix.com}

Upon consideration, i think that it’s interesting to explore its connection with an individual’s ‘ontological security’. Do you know Anthony Giddens, that smartass who wrote ‘The constitution of society’, the one who formulated the structuration theory??. Well if you do, you would probably have an idea on this. If you don’t, i’ll try to explain it.

Ontological security

First, defining ontological security. Giddens defined ontological security as “the confidence or trust that the natural and social world are as they appear to be”. It is anchored on a feeling on an integrity of reality.

Our everyday life consists of interactions that is in accordance with social conventions. Through agents production and reproduction of social practices, they become a part of the ‘taken for granted’ reality. They are embedded on the unconscious and the practical consciousness of the individual. This is where the predictability factor of social interactions comes from.

_{My current, totally predictable routine
https://gph.is/1Q8H39L}

Ontological security is a sense of trust (in its special sense) in that predictability. This is needed in order for individuals to go on in day-to-day life.It essentially brackets existential questions (death, meaninglessness,evil) so that we may focus on certain aspects of actions. In short, It enables us to go in our everyday life and interact with other social beings without the fear of chaos (FUD hehe). It is the trust in the order and continuity in life.

So what does this have to do with cryptocurrency?

Crypto and ontological security

People were skeptical in adopting the internet when it first emerged. Some crazy asshats were willing to take the risk though. Why were people skeptical in the first place?

Well, it’s because it’s a new structure. A structure that would revolutionize and rewrite the present established conventions. It has its own set of rules and it also has its own substructures that are continuously evolving. People would not be that receptive on new structures.

But then, it grew. Through more and more people adopting it, it crawled its way up into people’s day-to-day life. It has reinvented social conventions and social interactions. When social media first came about, people were skeptical, some crazy asshats again were willing to take the risk. Now, social media and the internet is in a way embedded into a person’s day-to-day life . Whether we like it or not, millions and millions of people cannot survive a day without posting that box of pizza they had for the day.

Now, we could argue that even the concept of ontological security would evolve along with the structures. I’ve seen people throw a fit when they can’t get internet access for a day. They feel that life is in a halt. Anxiety emerges. Chaos ensues. This just proves how the structure is deep within our practical consciousness. But that's just one interpretation of the concept.

https://onsizzle.com/i/internet-instagram-there-is-no-life-82066

Now with regards to crypto, have you ever tried introducing the idea of blockchain and cryptocurrencies to others? I know a lot of you would agree that there’s some stereotyping going on with the crypto community. The modern society is split into the ones who sees potential in the technology, the ones who don’t give a fuck, and the ones who developed some sense of opposition.

Crypto adopters and investors now could be seen as synonymous with the crazy asshats of the dot-com bubble. The blockchain technology is a new structure in its own. If it achieves mass adoption, it would then revolutionize and alter the existing social conventions. Just like how the internet did. The technology has its own language, existing conventions, ways of social interaction, etc.

The thing is, for the ordinary human being, a change in the social convention might crash the wall and push the existential questions into his consciousness. The unfamiliarity of the structure is exactly the reason for the reluctancy. The simple way of having cryptographic algorithms on one’s wallet is hard enough to familiarize individuals with. This is in contrast with the present financial structures (i.e banks and credit cards).

But that is how social structures are made. It would depend upon the ability of the adopters to include it in their day-to-day life. The ability of a structure to persist through time would depend upon its constant role in the life of individuals. And their resistance to societal, structural, and outside constraints.

_{https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/543035667541428601/}

I'm sorry if i can't explain it fully. Anyway, Good night.

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