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RE: SCARY Trend in Bitcoin & Other Cryptocurrencies
I would have to say that I agree with you but there are a few things that I think are worth pointing out and I feel like they are all interconnected in a way. I will try to form these thoughts as best I can:
- Most people aren't really interested in technology. What I mean by that is that there is always only a small percentage of people that get involved with the inner workings of tech. The general public likes technology because of the things it allows them to do and experience - they are interested in the effects of technology on their lives, not in the inner workings of things. How many people use the internet on a daily basis? And how many of them know how a server works or how to program a website?
- The tech isn't there yet. Not to the point where people could engage with it on a regular basis in a convenient way. The adoption is low because there aren't many ways to utilize the currencies that exist. I would go as far as saying that cryptocurrencies are simply less convenient to use than fiat for a regular person. "Do I have to have a more than $100 hardware wallet to secure my funds? Why can I not lose this private key? Why can my funds not be recovered? Bitcoin is slower than VISA? So how exactly does this tech improve my life?" If we assume that point 1 was fairly accurate, then it is fairly easy to realize why the decline happened - people were more interested in the price because the technology, at the moment, doesn't really solve the problems they face daily. It solves some problems, but not enough to be appealing to the masses. The tech is nice but the price was sexy.
- Currencies shouldn't really be interesting to regular people. If we assume that at the moment the collective effort of the hardcore blockchain enthusiasts is to create some form of a usable, digital currency, then it is a given that most people won't be very interested in it. How often do regular people actively look up articles specifically about the U.S. dollar or the Euro? The day the general public stops looking into cryptocurrencies is the day we have either failed with this project or the day we have finallly achieved mass adoption. Once it becomes convenient enough to use as a means to pay and transfer value in every day life people will stop worrying about it. Just like the dollar, just like the euro. And sure there might still be interest in the tech but refer to points 1 and 2.
tl;dr: Most people are interested in what technology allows them to do, not its inner workings. Cryptocurrencies do not (at the moment) allow people to do things that would dramatically change or improve their lives and get them interested and engaged. Currencies aren't interesting to most people anyway.
Very well-written. I agree with you, but I bring up the whole price over tech deal because so many people think they're in it for the "tech" which is USUALLY a flat out lie not only to whoever they tell it to, but also to themselves. Many people like the ideologies of cryptocurrencies without realizing the work it will require to achieve those ideologies (or how many of them can never be achieved). Thank you for the comment.
Of course crypto is cleary in a buble (as you've said and continue to say) and even in short term the price isn't very stable; but the tech still has some value > 0
Things like Steemit are one of the reasons I haven't tottaly given up.
The fact that something without a inherit value can have pecived value can bring a lot of attention and interest to a topic wich would otherwise be ignored. And greed is the engine on whice all of these values are mesh together and thrown in as fuel;
Just like politic interests gave us things like space travel or atomic science,
Greed, speculation and in-it-for-the-tech guys can give us things like Steemit (and, of course, CryptoKitties)
Maybe I sort of glossed over this in my initial comment but thank you for the video. Really enjoyed it. I image the ideas I explored earlier as branches that are all connected to what you said and form a larger picture together (as pretentious as that sounds). The three points are indicative of the fact that price must have been a stronger factor in the recent growth and fall of interest because none of the tech changed really.