Imagine the Cryptocurrency market is fishing for adoption.
The adoption line has been trying its luck since the first pizza was bought using Bitcoin in 2008. At this time the lake was not too healthy; there were little fish and the stream was shallow due to the lack of rainful and weak current; but the potential of the lake was fully understood by those aware, potentials that could offer profound changes to society.
The Blockchain was hooked to the line; the underlying technology that will attract breakthrough services and adoption.
Of course, just as a thriving natural ecosystem providing an abundance of fish for a society has profound effects for the standard of living, so does a thriving Cryptocurrency market.
By automating economic activity in a trustless manor (Blockchains work out who we should trust so we don’t have to), removing banks and the human element from payment processing thus removing fraud and corruption, and freeing time and energy for more pressing real world problems — are critical changes to society that if done right will obsolete fundamental economic systems we rely on today, and ultimately distribute power amongst more inhabitants on this planet.
There was never only one big lake existing on the planet that fed the entire population.
Lakes are vastly distributed across the world offering a vast number of fresh water sources, fish and vegetation. Only recent history has given rise to the central bank, and even centralised power authorities for that matter.
150 years ago your average farmer would be power independant, and power sufficient with their own windmills, trading in a localised economy.
So how has our crypto lake’s current been steadily growing strength and thus strengthening its ecosystem?
With releases of critical infrastructure such as trusted exchanges
Hardware wallets such as Trezor and Ledger
Market analysis tools allowing greater investor understanding
A growing crypto community spanning social platforms
On top of this, the bait hooked to the fishing line is becoming ever so more attractive:
Blockchain software is rapidly gaining sophistication as the developer community are introduced to it, learn it, and then contribute in their own ways.
Every aspect of a blockchain is undergoing improvement, from methods of consensus to scalability.
Blockchain economies are being experimented with, some sacrificing true decentralisation for speed with a super-nodes, or different tiers of nodes thus having tiered permissions and responsibilites within the blockchain.
Consensus algorithms are becoming more sophisticated with an ever growing community willing to test drive and get invovled — a stark contrast to a secretive corporative system.
The stream is undeniably gaining momentum and strength.
Why?
Because blockchain and Cryptocurrency solve fundamental problems in society. And there is (at least I believe there to be) real value in Cryptocurrency and blockchain. It is impossible to put a price on the security of your monetry value to never be taken away.
Just look at the List of Banking Crises (Wikipedia) to understand the sheer amount of collapses, rescue packages, and money lost due to a range of reasons — incompitance, lack of foresight, competition, political conflicts, or simply a failed banking system at the fundamental level.
For the past few decades we have had to choose our banks wisely and make changes should you see a risk of losing your assets.
The data is clear: There is a 100% probability that there will more collapses in the future.
On top of this we suffer from inflation, a deliberate mechanism that decreases the value of our fiat holdings. If you hold $1000 in 2017, that same $1000 in 2018 will be valued significantly less due to inflation. Interest rates are now infinitesimally small or in the negative, so investing is the only way to make your money work for you, to maintain or grow the value.
Blockchains do not collapse, and cannot be closed down by a central authority.
Banks know this, and must know better than anyone else the inevitability of another collapse. It will happen, and soon — that’s what the data says.
When this happens, will people of the Earth let another bailout take place with tax payer money? Will the people let the bank absorb their life savings? Or will they look for an alternative.
Truly decentralised systems cannot be supressed. Given the choice between a decentralised, uncontrolled digital currency, or a central bank controlled digital currency, which one would you choose? Which one would you have more power by holding and using? Ultimately, which one would have more value?
The first and only alternative to fiat currency available today is blockchain and Cryptocurrency.
And the growth is not slowing down. Pulling a couple of announcements from major exchanges in only the last week gives us a sense of the growth pace:
Just this year Binance has grown from 2 million users to 9 million users (yes, even with the market dip and successive dips we have experienced) and at the time of this writing have just announced plans for a fiat to crypto trading pair, most likely EUR-BTC, operating from their Malta entity.
Coinbase is rolling out tool after tool for large institutions and investment firms and buying up smaller companies they see fit for their mission. Coinbase Pro, Coinbase Index Fund, support for ERC20 tokens, Coinbase Commerce and tax tools are being rolled out as adoption of the platform continues.
Back to fishing
Getting back to our fishing analogy, let’s ask the following:
How long do you think it will take before the lake can fully sustain a society?
Will the bait need to be continuously upgraded or will we reach a point of the technology being superior to the banking system, where it is no longer necessary to attract further adoption?
The central bank rope-line is fraying, dissipating in strength. When will we see that line snap and witness the central banks being washed away?
There will be considerable changes to the monetary landscape within the next 5 years.