The negative reception of Cryptocurrency
In the news, there has been a lot of negative press about cryptocurrency, everything from calling it shady to just being unreliable in general. The most recent was an attack on cryptocurrency because people were using it for money laundering. The news was that 88 million dollars had been laundered through exchanges since 2016, but compared to other methods of money laundering where the estimated amount is between 800 billion to 2 Trillion dollars every year globally, 88 million is a drop in the bucket.
However, all this is negative attention is very reminiscent of how the internet was received back in the 90’s. Marc Andreessen, who played a significant role in the 90s of making the internet what it is today said back in 2014, that in the 90’s how the media talked about the internet was: it is only for nerds, untrustworthy as its decentralized, and there’s nothing to do on the web as most companies haven’t yet signed up with it.
Does that sound familiar?
Photo by Caleb Dow on Unsplash
Initially, when Bitcoin first started to get big, people thought it was only for the most technologically savvy people. However, now cryptocurrency is appealing to investors and becoming more consumer-friendly, as Starbucks is even talking of being able to accept cryptocurrency through the company Bakkt.
The next criticism people often have against cryptocurrency is that you cannot trust it as its decentralized. However, we have seen that that is not correct. Cryptocurrency has been on the up since its inception. The market has fluctuated, and currently, it is down, but what people are doing with crypto and blockchain is miraculous. Blockchain that came from the birth of Bitcoin is revolutionizing many industries, as well as the movement for the 31st human right made possible because of blockchain technology. As I have written about before if you’re wondering if investing in crypto is a trustworthy investment you have to treat it like any investment and research the particular one you’re looking to invest in. Look at the coin's history and what are the companies goals?
The last criticism being that, similar to the internet in the 90’s, there is nothing to do with cryptocurrency, on that front, there is exciting news all the time. As I stated above Starbucks is looking to be soon able to accept cryptocurrency, but it's not just Starbucks. Microsoft, Subway, Expedia, Paypal, to name a few, are all accepting cryptocurrency.
There is a lot of fear when it comes to cryptocurrency, as there was for the internet back in the 90’s, and that is not to say that some concerns aren’t warranted. Innovation needs to be watched and be ready to adapt and change as Cryptocurrency has done, with regulations when needed. Cryptocurrency will continue to evolve until hopefully one day it is as widespread as the internet is today.
Don’t believe all the critics when it comes to new technology; if we did the internet might not be where it is at today.
-Written by James Hepburn