Cryptocurrency: Desired By the Masses. The Technology. And the Elephant in the Room.

From the Author

I am grateful to my friend Thomas (ThomasTheTGV, XRPchat) for providing the background and direction of this article. We have watched the ups and downs of the cryptocurrency world for many years. And we both agree, significant changes in the Global Financial System are coming sooner than expected.

I truly believe that we are all witnessing history in the making. Those smart enough to follow - or lucky enough to have stumbled upon - the cryptocurrency space are now positioned to quickly take advantage of this major shift of worldwide wealth. The 80% of the world’s population who are without a clue about cryptocurrency are already kilometers behind the starting line.

Again, major props to ThomasTGV for his insights - and for me personally, his friendship.

JaiChai - “Life. Amazing, isn’t it?”

Desired By the Masses

Pre-Bitcoin: The Spirit is Willing, But the Tech is Weak.

A Dutch writer named Victor Broers published an article in ”de groene amsterdammer” and submitted his research on the proliferation of “money alternatives”. In the article, he points out the fact that, although there seems to be a mass desire for alternatives for present day fiat, this is not a new phenomena. In 1934 the Swiss wir was employed as a complement to the current coinage. The wir still functions today.

Even in Pre-Revolutionary America, there was a great desire for non-British controlled money. Many financial historians believe that the major reason for the American Revolution was more about the creation of - and successful use of - local, alternative money than the British religious tyranny popularized in mainstream history books.

Another example is the sardex, a unit of exchange which is successfully used on the Island of Sardinia. In response to the 2008 financial crisis, the sardex was introduced in 2009 by a group of Arts and Humanities students and spearheaded by Giuseppe Littera. A dire need for something like the sardex resulted when the Island was hit hard by the credit crisis and banks stopped giving out loans. The sardex system gave local businesses the possibility to invest and trade among each other - effectively personalizing money and trade again.

The rest of Broers’ article includes interviews and a discussion over the pro's and con's of using cryptocurrencies.

It’s no coincidence that Bitcoin appeared in 2009.

It too was a response to the financial crisis. Unlike the past where “The Spirit was Willing, But the Technology was Weak”, Satoshi Nakamoto’s introduction of the blockchain gave the masses the technology to carry out their desires for alternative money - a verifiable cryptocurrency, immune from counterfeiting (protected from double-spending), not hindered by third parties, nor controlled by greedy middlemen.

All of this takes me and Thomas back to one of the reasons why we got interested in cryptocurrency in the first place, specifically “The Elephant in the Room”.

The Elephant in the Room - Ripple

In the early days of 2013, Ripple was continually bashed by the Bitcoin community. It was - and still is - held in contempt for siding with the “Dark Side” (the banking system). It was criticized for being centrally controlled.

Ripple was spanked around the crypto world like a red-headed stepchild.

I can empathize to a point. But I have never been a Bitcoin zealot, a Rah-Rah “Bitcoin Fanboy”. Much like Andreas A., I could foresee the reason why altcoins were needed. I could also see Bitcoin’s clear vulnerabilities.

For one, I thought it was hypocritical of the majority of Bitcoin supporters to proselytize the total democratization of money. From the start, miners had - and still have - Bitcoin by the balls. The Mining Mafia is alive and well.

Mining produces a huge carbon footprint. I guess most Bitcoiners are not proponents of going Green? No mining is required for Ripple’s XRP token. To this day, scalability is a problem for Bitcoin - leading to the fork into Bitcoin cash. Ripple has not had those problems.

Bitcoin has always had tortoise like confirmation speeds. Way before Litecoin, Ripple has always confirmed transactions fast - not in minutes, but in seconds.

Fiat currency is still a major obstacle for Bitcoin around the world - and as you would guess, moreso in the countries who manufacture the top fiat currencies. Ripple was built from the ground up to handle multiple currencies and has partnered up with a growing group of international banks.

Bitcoin and Litecoin’s multi-sig transactions and Lightning Network came after Ripple’s multiple contractual, contingent based agreements and ILP’s international monetary transactions - a system that has already been proved to possess mach-like speed.

Ripple enables initiatives such as LETS (Local Exchange Trading System) like villages.cc. From its inception, Ripple gave each user the capability to create their own tokens - your own currency which co-existed with other digital or fiat currencies in the ledger.

“Create Your Own Cryptocurrency Easily”. Sound familiar?

(Thomas, Massive good karma inbound, my friend.)

By JaiChai

About the Author, Not!

JaiChai has been in the cryptocurrency space for over 6 years. He is an enigma, regarded by his cohorts as sarcastic, funny, intuitive - but most of all, elusive. JaiChai alternates long dormant periods with concentrated periods of frenzied commentary - only to go silent again. He’s known for randomly submitting philosophical and contrarian posts on most cryptocoin forums.

When asked about his vanishing acts, he says, "I’m just somebody who enjoys being nobody because I look like everybody. Besides, time checking things off my 'bucket list’ - sans notoriety - is time well spent.”