50
It’s 2022 and the world is abound with crypto jargon and blockchain bros permeating every corner of the web. For a long time I watched from the sidelines, waiting for the cryptocurrency fad to burn out like most fads do. A few years on and it’s now dawned on me that it’s very much here to stay, and will likely shape our future in ways we can only image. I am very much still a novice in this space, but here’s what I know so far.
Rewind back to the year 2016. For me, like many people, this was the year ‘Bitcoin’ finally made us all stand up and take notice. Prior to 2016, vague concepts like blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and decentralisation amounted to nothing more than fringe vernacular seemingly used by nerdy non-conformist computer geeks, hell-bent on replacing our corrupt financial institutions. A noble cause perhaps, though I personally wasn’t convinced they’d get very far.
Toward the end of 2016, Bitcoin suddenly became a leading headline all over the world thanks to its meteoric rise in speculatory value. Everybody knew someone who knew someone that was now a millionaire because they had purchased $50 worth of BTC a couple years ago. Conversely, people widely lamented they wished they’d bought in earlier. We know how it goes.
2016 was an important year for a number of reasons;
- Bitcoin had seen enough real-world application to see a huge surge in investment
- Bitcoin became a household name
- Nobody wanted to miss out on this sure-fire way to “get rich quick”
Huge influxes of no-coiners clamoured to the new gold-rush, purchasing Bitcoin in the hope it would continue in it’s upward trajectory. And for a while, it did. All-time-highs were being surpassed daily.
While the headlines were focused almost exclusively on Bitcoin, there were now thousands of other cryptocurrencies emerging, many promising to be the ‘next big thing’, with everyday people collectively pouring millions of dollars into these projects, often based off little more than a convincing sales-pitch on a website, or in some especially tragic cases, just a simple word document.
For these people, no doubt blinded by the dream of early-adopting the next bitcoin, the crypto-scams would begin ruthlessly spitting them out as victims. Over-promising and under-delivering was the name of the game, and business was booming. Helped along by the continuing upward trend of Bitcoin itself, the “alt-coins” (as they became known) rarely were forthright with reliable or useful information, so investing in them became a new-age form of pseudo-gambling. Pump’n’Dump groups emerged to deliberately manipulate markets. Perhaps a few people did well, but most took severe losses.
Then, after many months of fanfare, Bitcoin would reach it’s final all-time-high for a long time. The crypto gold-rush was over. Inflated values would plummet right across the board. The few who toasted their new fortunes had earned them through unscrupulous practices. The overwhelming majority of new crypto investors were badly burned.
This is how the crypto-boom of 2016 played out for most ordinary people who played their hand. We were left feeling jaded and resentful at what was revealed an artificially inflated make-believe world run by the lies of snake-oil salesman.
But this superficial judgement would prove to be enormously unfair to the underlying potential of blockchain technology. It was only just getting started, and it didn’t care about price charts and candlesticks.
A NEW PERSPECTIVE
For whatever reason, I’ve recently been drawn back into the world of crypto and blockchain technology, but for very different reasons. I’ve begun to look at some of the successful projects like Ethereum and what this new technology is bringing to humanity that was never possible before. Without much ado, real-world things now exist like fully-functioning Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms, offering fair and low-fee financial services to anyone anywhere in the world. It turns out those nerdy computer geeks who wanted to take down the banks are actually doing it!
It’s also become apparent that the people who truly understand the potential of this technology are never going to be driven by short-term profits. It doesn’t exist to buy Lamborghinis. Whether you realise it or not, the true value of this emerging technology is revolutionizing the world for the better. That might sound like a grandiose statement, but it’s true, and therein lies the real value of it.
So instead of speculating on where the next trend line is headed to close out a small profit on a day-trade, I’ll be spending a lot more time forming a deeper understanding of the ideology, motivations, community, competency, and most importantly: technology, behind some of the most successful and promising blockchain projects around today.
WHAT LIES AHEAD
I’m genuinely excited at the possibilities ahead for us, and I’m no longer resentful at how naive I’d been years ago. I just wish it hadn’t taken me so long to see the real purpose and true potential of blockchain technology.
Going forward I’ll be detailing my discoveries here as they come to light.
I have no formal training in computer science, cryptography, economics, or anything even remotely relevant to this field, so what I offer is a genuine layman's perspective of what I find interesting and noteworthy.
Skye-Fi :)
