China is not done after banning cryptocurrency trading, investing in ICO's and making it practically illegal for crypto exchanges to be in business. Now, they have gone after foreign exchanges, blocking the websites from being accessed by cryptocurrency enthusiasts in the country.

China is one of the largest cryptocurrency markets in the world and this action by the Chinese government has had a major effect on the value of Bitcoin. It was only a few months ago that the value of Bitcoin was holding above 15,000 USD reaching highs as much as 19,000 USD.

Currently, the value of Bitcoin is on a rapid decline hitting fresh lows every single day. Are we witnessing the death of Bitcoin along with other cryptocurrencies?

The answer is a resounding NO! Cryptos such as Bitcoin were mainly used to perform illegal exchanges on the dark web and the likelihood of further negative legislation would most likely see the currency continue surviving as the go-to currency for illegal activity and probably combine with other fee-less coins when it comes to performing transactions.

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"Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come."

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That brings me to a quick history of money.

History of money

What is money?

Well, money is any clearly identifiable object of value that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts within a market, or which is legal tender within a country.

Crypto generally fulfills most of these categories. However, legal tender still remains to be one of the biggest hurdles it has yet to overcome.

While the idea behind creating digital currencies was having a way of having a peer-to-peer exchange of value the world over without having to involve the banks and other government monetary institutions, it has quickly morphed into something more. Digital currencies have become a means of equalization.

The Steem Blockchain, for example, has made it very easy for just about anyone to come in and have an income without having to go through several levels of company bureaucracy and censorship like on YouTube, Facebook, Google or Udemy and in the end being paid peanuts for your efforts.

In the history of money, we started out in a civilization which involved non-monetary exchanges or a barter system. During this period people exchanged goods for goods, i.e Goats for bags of rice. This system was inefficient because it was not standardized. It was basically based on whether you actually thought that your goats were worth a certain amount of rice.

This quickly evolved to the use of cowrie shells and beads which represented a prescribed value. These were more standardized and offered a way to determine the value of the particular product that was being purchased. But still, it had its own limitations. There was no central control authority.

Now, we have the standardized bank notes. This has actually solved most of the limits that came with its predecessors due to their ease of use, the availability of control and they are difficult to forge. However, just like anything created by human beings, there is a flaw. An institutional flaw.

Large banks such as the Federal Reserve Bank of America have been empowered by the banknote. Each and every single note that is produced comes with an attached debt. The government takes on the debt and passes it on to the people and the cycle continues. The world is indebted. Money continues to circulate back to those with the money while the poor continue to crumble under mountains of debt.

The new age of Cryptocurrencies.

As someone who has been working online for most of my campus and post-campus life, I do know how difficult it can be to make money. First, engaging in any freelancing platform you have to go through a rigorous and sometimes prejudiced test of your skills. Most of us are not native speakers of the English language and we will always make mistakes. That is understandable. The quality of our articles may sometimes fall short. However, in the programming field where you do not require English to type code why should that even matter?

We are mostly judged by the actions of people in our own countries who preceded us on these platforms and therefore trying to make a name for yourself is always difficult. Try asking the people from India. They could actually have a Ph.D. in computer science, try out a freelancing site and be offered peanuts on a coding project just because freelancers from India accept low pay.

When I discovered cryptocurrencies I saw a huge opportunity to make money and rely on the skills I had acquired online. I couldn't have been more grateful when I came across a YouTube video made by Jerry Banfield that helped me discover that there was a better Blockchain out there called Steem.

Here you have everything that you don't get with conventional banknotes and banks. Here you can confidently loan out the value of your influence on the Blockchain without worrying about losing it. On Steem your value to the Blockchain is measured by what you contribute or a 'proof of brain' concept. What is it that your good at that you can pump into the Blockchain that adds value and other people appreciate?

Understandably, most of us find it hard to make anything on Steemit and give up along the way. One of life's greatest lessons is that nothing good comes easy and nothing easy is worth having.

A friend of mine recently told me that he has been getting depressed because life has lost meaning for him. He runs a very successful affiliate marketing website that has been earning him about $5000 a month passively. That is a lot of money in Kenya considering that the cost of living is very low. He has a team that manages the entire workload of the website and all he does is cash the cheques.

He said he felt numb and he had almost jumped off his balcony hadn't it been for the intervention of one of his friends who was with him at the time. Working for something gives it and gives life meaning.

So, if you are finding it hard on Steemit keep putting in the effort and everything will change. Take it as an investment.

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Thank you for getting this far. I hope you all have a nice and profitable day on Steemit and see you in the next one.

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Support Community Curation Project @boosterke for Steemit Kenya with an SP delegation, Steem or SBD.

Would you #Follow, #Upvote or #Resteem me? I hope to see you in the next one!