Bitcoin The Shitcoin That Keeps On Giving - Lessons In Market Forces
I have heard it time and time again by cryptocurrency aficionados. "Lol, people don't even realise that Bitcoin is a shitcoin".
Really, why?
The answers that I get range from no answer at all, to a bunch of crypto gobbledy gook which causes me to glaze over whilst slipping in and out of consciousness.
Hashrates this . .
block times that . .
Segwit this . .
blockchain capacity that . .
Bunkum!
It's all bunkum I tell you !!
There is only one thing that matters when we talk about whether a service or commodity will be mass adopted by the greater good.
One thing that drives the world economies, it is the fuel of human desire that we have come to know as . .
Market Forces
You see, the market doesn't give a single toot about what you think should be popular. It really doesn't care about what you think is cool or amazing or useful.
The market represents one thing and one thing only . .
What people want ! !
That's right folks, what people want is much more powerful than what you think should be doing well.
For instance, imagine last year just before Steemit launched, I said to you do you want to invest in a brush that you put in your mouth, so that you can lick your cat?
I'd imagine you would have picked up your phone, dialled the men in white coats and asked them to come and take your friend @cryptogee away, as he had clearly lost his marbles.
However that exact same idea; the Likki Brush, raised over $52,000 on Kickstarter and has sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product.
That's right, a brush you lick your cat with, is set to make the inventor a millionaire.
If you saw that coming you're either a clairvoyant, or a liar (which is the same thing let's face it).
So are you getting it yet? Whilst you might think fidget spinners are stupid, the market just gets on with it and facilitates the selling of millions of dollars worth.
Function Over Form
Have you heard the one about the coin that sits atop of a blockchain that can do 4000 transactions every microsecond, that nobody wants to buy?
The thing about Bitcoin is, even though you might think it's a shitcoin, people want it.
Why?
Well a big part of that is they can actually use it for something other than trading.
That's right folks, you can spend Bitcoin in shops and stuff.
Yes, yes I know you can buy a cup of coffee with Steem in that coffee shop in Guatemala.
Newsflash!
You can spend Bitcoin with hundreds, if not thousands of vendors around the world. Not only that, Paypal the worlds largest consumer payment gateway, has got into the space.
DON'T THESE PEOPLE KNOW IT'S A SHITCOIN!?!
Yeah well it's all about function over form . .
Why would a consumer want to spend Bitcoin?
Because most vendors give substantial discounts on their goods and services.
Why would a vendor accept bitcoin?
Because a ten minute wait to process the payment is nothing, and they don't have to pay 2.5% on each transaction, like they do with credit/debit card payments.
Simple . .
So while you crypto aficianados writhe, and whine about how Bitcoin is a load of crap, and your new shiny coin which does so much, but delivers so little, Bitcoin will continue to soar.
Finding The Future - If You Spend It They Will Come
So what does the future hold for Bitcoin? Will it ever reach the market cap of trillions of dollars it needs to get to in order to service the entire planet?
Who knows; and quite frankly, who cares?
Maybe something will come along . .
Perhaps it already has . .
It really doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is Bitcoin is going nowhere.
You can scoff, snort and sniff at the idea, you can laugh at me for being a naive little cryptonoob, and while you're doing that, I will keep on buying, selling and spending Bitcoin.
What about other coins; which one of those have the potential to become the new Bitcoin?
I would suggest looking at functionality, as far as I can see, ETH and Litecoin are the next coins to be mass adopted.
Why?
Because I am seeing the sites that accept Bitcoin, are now accepting Ethereum and Lite . .
Simples.
I do understand that you are probably right, Bitcoin is cumbersome and slow, clunky and all of that; however nobody cares.
The rest of us will carry on using bitcoin and watching the value increase.
So you know; get over it buster!!
I think Bitcoin is like the model T. It may always be loved and have some value but better and faster will come along.
Eventually, not today, but eventually :-)
Cryptogee
It's a model-T that can be ever-expanded and improved. Unfortunately, this improvement has fallen into the hands of a select few, and the future of Bitcoin is uncertain.
If we look back 2 years from now very few people knew about bitcoins then but now majority of the population know about it and are investing on it!!
Bitcoin is gonna be the future currency thats what i believe!!
By the way great post!!
I too write about bitcoins and other stuffs would really appreciate if u would check them out and give your views on it :)
Already upvoted you and followed you.
Hope to get followed Back!!
Keep posting such great articles.
Cheers!!
Supply and demand, everyone. Supply and demand.
The three most beautiful words in the English language :-)
Cryptogee
without bitcoin you will not have any other coin, the most coins are related to bitcoin I think !
I agree, it's funny I think people talk it down just to appear clever.
Cgee
Hi! Nice article. I personally do not buy into Bitcoin's value proposition, but I believe there is a reason why people assign value to it.
Hi @fatboy - I am new here on steemit and maybe I shouldn't do this - hope nobody is mad at me, BUT I wanted to thank you for your upvote for my jesus painting. I really appreciate it! all the best, martin
Um, yeah, that's what the article is about . . .
Cryptogee
Bitcoin is the brain and heart of the cryptosphere and Ethereum is the stomach.
Hahaha I'm still laughing about the Likki brush!!
Thanks for this post, I'm still very new to learning about cryptocurrency - but the more I find out the more excited I'm getting about the changes that are happening. :)
I'm actually betting on Dash and NEM for the future. Dash already has super low Tx fees, 1.3 second confirmations, optional privacy options and it's already sponsoring an AeroSports team. More stuff is coming along the way and it's steadily gaining market.
NEM is already #2 in Japan which is very tech savvy and if you have used NEM, You'll know the UX to be heavenly in comparison. Basically even your grandma can use NEM.
Very nice :) I was into NEM when it was just 8 cents. Now its all grown up *tears
NEM really has the mainstream appeal to the mainstream crowd. When cryptos open up to the general market away from the geeks and zealots, NEM will easily overtake BTC market cap in most probably 2 years or at least before the end of 2020.
Dash is the same story but better. They even have their own AeroSports team!
If the market gives a crap about those things then sure, otherwise I wouldn't hold your breath.
Cryptogee
The current market actually won't. But the thing is that the current market is simply the early adopter's market. Early 2000s nobody seemed to care much about USB flash drives. They had CDs, DVDs and even Floppy Disks. All those are now relics. Why? They could only expand so far.
It's wiser to bet on growth that what's hot at the moment. It's more about markets you can reach than what you already have.
The article makes one very good point, which is it doesn't matter so much what you think should be popular or valuable, but what people actually want. There are literally endless cryptocurrencies that may or may not have a technical advantage over BTC. Only time will tell how they develop and change the landscape. Faster and better is great but to see real gains, mass market applicability is what will be key. I have a good feeling about Ripple (XRP), Siacoin (SC) and TenX (PAY). I also like Golem, but depends how easy it will be to utilize that blockchain supercomputing power in day-to-day applications like rendering or mapping genomes and such!
Thank you, and yes that's the point, if the market likes it the market will buy it, regardless of what any one individual thinks.
I like SC, I bought some the other day, however the fact is faster transaction times are not something vendors or in fact consumers care about at the mo. Bitcoin is already faster than fiat and that's that. It will be interesting to note when this particular paradigm changes.
Golem makes me laugh, the first words in the whitepaper are something along the lines of; "In the future . ."
Yeah really? That's great, now tell me how that's got anything to do with you? Rofl :-D
Cryptogee