Blockchain technology has the power to revolutionize and change everything, but it still has yet to gain major adoption for personal and business use.
Although there are many companies and firms that have implemented elements and aspects of blockchain technology, the true power of the technology hasn't come close to reaching its full potential. It is starting to seem that many coins and cryptocurrencies are beginning to be pushed and driven by speculation that we haven't seen in awhile. Much of the daily volume that is traded on the various exchanges comes from investors who are simply taking advantage of the volatility of the market for profit. While this alone isn't a bad thing because it increases volume on the exchanges and enables tighter spreads, it begs the question of how much investment is truly going into these projects for the long term verses how much of the trading and volume is simply short term positions to make a profit.
Even most individuals and groups who are investing in long term positions on cryptocurrencies, are simply investing and speculating the future of the project rather than its practical present day use. This has always been the case within the cryptocurrency market, but I think that the increase in capital investment and trading have lead to a more speculative market than we have ever seen. The price of many different coins can be driven by a much smaller investment when compared to markets such as the stock market. A trader with 1 million dollars can have a serious impact on driving the price of a specific coin upward, and can lead to the trader exiting the position in a short period of time with a hefty profit. While the original investment and upward push may have been a temporary positive for the coin, the volatility that will follow a sell off can have lasting consequences.
Are there any practical uses for current blockchain projects for average end users?
There have been very few projects that have been able to gain attention and attraction from actually end users, but Steemit and Bitcoin have had the most success so far in my opinion. Although Steemit has yet to gain 'mainstream' adoption, the platform is built and created for the end users to easily and conveniently use the platform. The reason that I believe that Bitcoin has achieved a certain level of adoption and convince for end users is because of all of the different products and services built around and for servicing Bitcoin payments and transactions. Bitcoin is still really not practical for the average end user, because of the hassle of purchasing small amounts of Bitcoin, the lack of merchants that accept it, and other hoops that users must jump through in order to practically use their Bitcoins.
Support, interest, and investment in Bitcoin are at an all time high, but Bitcoin has yet to make any serious strides towards practicality.
Even with all of the support that Bitcoin currently has, all of the technical hurtles that Bitcoin is facing really make me think about why the recent investment level has been so high. I think that we are beginning to see a flow of capital by individuals who simply don't want to miss out on Bitcoin, but I am unaware if any of these investors completely understand what must happen for Bitcoin to actually can adoption and practical uses. I really hope that Bitcoin achieves long term success, but it seems just as likely that another Blockchain project could become the market leader in a few years.
Bitcoin has always had the massive advantage of being the first on the market, but will that advantage become less important as other blockchain technologies continue to develop? If a technically superior cryptocurrency hit the market and was able to gain support, I am really not sure about how well Bitcoin would be able to hold its dominant market share and price level. Bitcoin is an absolutely amazing technology, idea, and philosophy, but it is starting to seem like another cryptocurrency would the ability to surpass Bitcoin in the upcoming years. As people become more informed and educated about cryptocurrency and as new projects continue to be advanced and developed, the idea that a a cryptocurrency besides Bitcoin could be the first to become adopted and achieve long term success. Bitcoin could retain its dominating share and pricing level, but in my opinion for that to continue in the long term the technical hurtles that currently hurt Bitcoin must be solved.
I really do hope that Bitcoin gains long term success, but we must realize and acknowledge the potential problems it will face to get there. I really hope you you enjoyed this post and as always I urge any comments, input, or discussions to be left below! Thanks for reading!