Until it's over.

The stamina of Cryptos is being tested heavily.

A spine and a pair of balls.

Now, I actually wanted to do some autumn photography this Monday morning. It is a beautiful day to go out to a forest and shoot some photos. Yet, instead, here I am ticking keys at my laptop. Maybe if I do this one quick, I still could make it, before the sunlight becomes to bright. Anyway, before I get distracted even more, focus... Cryptos, what the bleep is going on? A lot of bad gloom and doom 'news' from so-called Crypto news sites. Nothing new there, sensation still sells advertisements, right? Is it really that bad though? Well, Cryptos had some serious attacks to endure over last year. Gold diggers at some point ran in and showed weak hands at some point when they fled out screaming and cursing. And then there were the inside fights. A divided Cryptos realm is weak one.

It was almost like 'Libra' needed to first get all the worlds attention, being labeled as a Crytpo and then getting dragged into the shit. While it is no Crypto, more like a kind of digital reserve currency, backed by bankers money, all thrown into one bowl. It gained so much attention though that it could effectively be used to frame Cryptos in a very negative way. Is 'Libra' anything near to a Crypto, like Bitcoin, Bitshares, Steem or EOS? No, as far as I can see, it is just a business controlled Digital Currency. And it will be a weighted one, like the SDR (Special Drawing Right) as constructed by the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Which is constructed using 5 banking monetary governance {BMG} system controlled currencies: U.S.A. dollar 41.73%, Euro 30.93%, Renminbi (Chinese Yuan) 10.92%, Japanese Yen 8.33%, British Pound 8.09%. So, why the negative Cryptos framing, when 'Libra' was to be like a kind of an SDR? Well, any stick that the old system can find, it will use to beat the Cryptos realm. All we need to do is use that to become stronger.

Twelfth, for Steem.

There was this number that I had in mind a long time: 12. There was an ongoing gag with 3 piglets and a bucket, to predict the value for Steem. Did not think at the time that it could also mean 12 cents. And maybe that was the lowest point for the value of Steem. Was I way too optimistic thinking it would be worth 12 USA Dollar, or about 10 Euro? Well, we did hit as low as 7 cents at one point. And still most of us Steemians kept publishing, like it was 1999. Of course many left, cursing, ranting and blaming everything and everybody. But one thing a lot of people do seem to forget when the run for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. High possible profits or high expected returns on investments, do come with a high risk of losing almost everything. That is why the advice sounds: only invest in Cryptos what you are willing and able to lose. (Time, effort and energy are also a part of that...)

With Steem there was no guarantee that one would become rich overnight. Yes, the marketing scream was "Post and get payed!", or something along that line. And some unrealistic megalomania added to the mix, like Steem would be the FaceBook beater. But I think we have gotten passed that now and Steem evolved into a substantive publishing and application platform on a blockchain. And I am still skeptical about the last HardFork {HF}, as I did not see it as a value booster for Steem. The reward tempering, ah well, that is not going to fix anything, as I see it. And I was really done reading about it, how it would be the magical unicorn coming to save Steem. It really had me take a serious break and less eager to publish. Not because the payout, as if so then I was only here for a nickel and a dime. Already had my 15 seconds of fame, way back in 2016. No, I am still here for the technology, the next level: Smart Media Tokens {SMT}. (And also because some good friends are here too.)

The hardcore purgening.

When the total Crypto currency market capacity dropped below 300 billion I really was in a bit of a shock. Bad news, the drop from close to a trillion, all the way down to close to 200 billion, it should end about there. Even leverage traders seemed to have stopped doing their trickery when Bitcoin went below 8000. And of course the sensation callers were shouting gloom and doom from the shadows again. Getting all the attention they were able to get, as they have their own product and service to sell. While the truth of the matter is that there were a lot of 'get rich overnight' schemes flooding the Crypto market. First it was: "Make your own Crypto online, get the pre-mine, become a billionaire in 24 hours!" and then it got to even the worst kind of all schemes: ICOs {Initial Coin Offerings}. Most of them also just a way to get rich quickly and then run away with the loot. Bad news? You bet, the enemies of Cryptos must have loved all that crap. Just like those forking splitting blockchain clones that tried to take over the Bitcoin BTC brand and its market dominance.

Enough exciting stuff happening in the Cryptos realm. And in the end only a few will be of any importance. The rest will have been flushed out by 2020. Not stating here that they will have ended to exist, just most will have lost most of their value. The real excitement will be within the Crypto top 100. As I think only there will be enough potential to go forward, to change, to stay ahead in technology. Where Bitcoin {BTC} will be the standard, the number one. And as long as Steem can move up in the top one hundred it will be fine. The higher, the better though, as goes for all Cryptos in the highest ranks. It would be nice to see Steem get to the top 25 in 2020. But as things are still very unstable in the Cryptos realm, I might even ask the piglets for a prediction. Cryptos got attacked massively, framed as 'criminals use it' and so on and so forth. Considering all of that, it is amazing to see it still at over 200 billion in market cap. And Steem actually on an apparent slow recovery path, so it aint half bad...

SMTs Rock!

So, I am quite skeptical about the effects by recent HardFork, tinkering with the reward system, again. It is almost like another trial to me. There were other exciting technological innovations, which, to me, really were important. While some incrowd discussions about 'who-gets-what-and-why-they-deserve-it-or-not' started to piss me off and at some point made me yawn and yearn for a break, innovations got me back here. A blockchain publication and application system like Steem is quite complex to manage and to keep it running smoothly is an ongoing challenge. So when I see how some of those challenges are being addressed and solved then I can only be impressed. Respect, as It is easier looking for the bad, than it is to look for the good. Short term profits may be nice, but what is the use in the long run?

And I know that Steem has been the right thing in the right time for my family and me, as it still can be in the future for many others. While having fun, enjoying freedom of expression, making friends and using all kinds of applications running on Steem. The future is still ahead of us and with the coming of Smart Media Tokens {SMT} things will go to a whole new level. Some might find it difficult to foresee what this could do for Steem as a platform, but I do see exciting times ahead. Will it mean Steem will only be payed to the witnesses and to support DAO {Decentralize Autonomous Organization} projects? Well sure and why not? Smart Media Tokens {SMT} will be used to reward publications and function as Tokens for Applications in 2020. The basic first need was to make the blockchain engine stronger, faster and more flexible and ready for future. And as that has been done and will be innovated upon the Steem blockchain is ready for the next level: SMTs.

Where will Cryptos go from here?

Will the purgening end any day soon? Well, that almost came to a conclusion I think. The attacks on Cryptos though are still ongoing. Although I believe the worldwide operating banking monetary governance {BMG} system will have its hands full soon with its troublesome 'old economy'. And I foresee that 'it' will try to go for a worldwide economical reset, using a global new currency. (Maybe it will be called the Mondo?) The fractional reserve banking system is creating money out of nothing, against interest bearing debt. This causes devaluation, or as people on the streets call it: "Everything is getting more expensive.", making it harder for more and more people to make it to the next month, without going into debt. Making things going from bad to worse, because the numbers of those people grow fast. (Except those who HODL Cryptos...)

Many people are scared shitless about negative interest rates, while they should actually demand an end to money creation out of nothing against interest bearing debt. And if interest rates would go up? Imagine all the loads of shit hitting the fan at once on a global scale... Then governments must have gone totally mental asking for the people of the world to bailout the banks again. And for that getting another worldwide economical crisis in return. While the bastards that cause all that misery and want to keep it that way reward themselves and their buddies with bonuses and raises beyond 30%. That is the real criminal behavior, if you ask me. It is understandable that those bastards want to see Cryptos go down, because it can make their money ponzi scheme go bankrupt. The end of 'it's believed reign of power and control. Guess that they wont go down without some manipulation, corruption, bribing and what not...

In the meantime the 'get rich quick' vultures probably have left the Cryptos realm. And I really hope the total market cap will move towards, at least, 300 billion by the end of 2019. Though I expect some cashing out during the holidays, it might get back to the 300 billion level by early 2020. Or I might be too optimistic and really rent them three piglets and a bucket to get a better future prediction...

Have a great one!

Maybe them piglets were right?

Drawing cc-by-sa @oaldamster.

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Payout 100% to beneficiaries: 50% to Null (burning Steem, yeah!), 30% to DAO.Steem (keep innovating!), 10% to Steempeak (great interface).

Also I added EnglishTchrIvy and Smasssh to the beneficiaries list, for 5% each, because these good friends inspired me to publish this one.