I hope you have come to this article searching for things like why is the bitcoin value so high? How is the price of bitcoin decided? Why are the transaction fees on bitcoin high? Sorry I do not have any answers to these questions which are some of the most pressing questions that I have as well. In my search for these questions I have encountered various explanations and also got the opportunity to delve deeper into the crypto currency space and understand it a bit better.
If you have started to discover the crypto space due to all the hype but not actually because of the core technology in the background like me, then the one person you should listen to is Andreas Antonopoulos. I wish I had listened to this guy talk about four years ago. This guys is just brilliant in the way he talks and any one that has some knowledge of how the centralised financial systems are geared at concentrating power for the few elite, you will totally get what he says. Just search him on google and subscribe to his YouTube channel. Some of the videos have truly just inspired me to look beyond the hype in the crypto currency space.
But I think that Bitcoin for the moment does not appeal to me as the average Joe who is an immigrant from a third world economy to a western economy. Understandable that the new technology will create ripples and disrupt the old ageing system it’s trying to replace, but I think more than the hype and speculation, I would like for it to be a stable and sensible.
Sure who would not want to have got Bitcoin when it was not even a cent or even when it was a few dollars and cashed out a lotto ticket today? But I think what I really want after only starting to scratch the surface of this technological revolution is someday to be boldly able to close my bank accounts, store all my liquid assets in a truly decentralised network and forget that a fiat system exists. What I want is to be able to give my kids a private key to a crypto currency and be assured that the value of that currency would remain stable and provide about the same in goods and services for at least a finite amount of time. I don’t want it to sky rocket and make them an instant millionaire and I don’t want it to tank and wipe any hope they have for the future. What I want is to transact with my mobile wallet for everyday items like groceries, public transport, fuel, food, restaurants, bills, rent/mortgage, micro transactions to friends, family and just about anyone else. Is this truly possible with the way the current blockchain technologies are progressing. With Bitcoin being the biggest and the most mature player, in my infinitesimally little experience, it cost me $1.29 to transfer $15 from one wallet to another. That to me is just not viable if this is the currency that aims to become the global default currency.
Why should it be only possible for somebody that is most likely much richer than the average joe and with a higher technical expertise to be able to mine these coins and make more money from the speculation. Doesn’t this look flawed when the whole purpose was to make this currency mass adopted? Why not have a system that would reward just about anyone that participates in the network to be able to do a part of the complex calculations required to provide consensus on the transactions that will be approved as valid? Why not incentivise the users to use the network which would then create a true network affect and may be even not have any fee for transactions? Is there a model that is being developed that has any of these altruistic features? This would be the currency I would want to be involved and invested in. Because this will truly allow the people in the remote areas that this technology is being flaunted for use it on a daily basis and actually create the use case for using it as a default currency.
Imagine I am a poor farmer/worker in a third world country that farms/produces goods. I take these to a store that is the only way to get the goods to be valued and get paid. A settlement is done at the end of the week or month and it’s all based on trust. Why not have a simple transaction system that is not network hungry that can possibly transact both online and offline and provide a feeless micro transaction in this scenario. Where the farmer can get the coins immediately from the store, then be able to buy some other goods and services using the same coins and this is just the default way. He does not need to have any fiat money, his cash based economy today moves straight to the digital world. This is assuming that the smart phone revolution is going to truly reach the masses in the next decade. I can already see instances of the smart phone penetration into the market when I visit my native country. A street vendor taking selfies! HAHA, kids that do not have footwear crowding around playing games on their smart phones.
Why not have a crypto currency system that truly uses the power of the smart phone? Why not have a system that would have a finite amount of coins that is based on the factor that the poorest of the world’s economy mass adopts it. So provide no incentive to speculate on it. Give away the coins to each user that joins the system and allow for transactions without any fees. May be provide a decentralised eBay of sorts to see if people will use it to barter for goods and services. Can it be integrated into one of the new smart contract platforms so that the transactions can be truly trustless and no one gets screwed? Or is this totally a screwed up world where this kind of an altruistic idea can never flourish. What I mean is, can speculation be controlled and even discouraged, but innovation and improvement be rewarded and a truly simple, easy to use and globally accepted method of micro transaction and store of value be achieved with crypto currency?
I would love some feedback on this article, agreed that I probably do not understand this new space as much as I would like but anyone that sort of agrees with me and knows about any projects that is trying to achieve what I am on about, I would really like to explore them. So please leave a link and go easy on the criticism. All this is just my humble opinion based on a measly 4 months in the crypto space. Hope you enjoy reading it!!