They say alliteration is meant to focus readers’ attention on a particular text. One hopes that is to some degree fact. But catchy headlines are to cheap press what fancy websites and futuristic whitepapers were to crypto companies not so long ago; and often what’s below the surface or what lies at the bottom of the jar of hope is not always what will quench our thirst.
Sometimes we find well-dressed ideas to have little substance, context, relevance or importance outside the grand narrative of their immediate proponents and over time, we’ve learnt that humans are as much creatures of rhythm as they are of –isms. But none is more crucial than that all too common scepticism. However, the intention here is not to dance around the subject but attempt to explore the reality that many so-called cryptopreneurs ought to wake up to. And for that, it’s important to understand how new entrepreneurial opportunities are discovered and developed.
For new ideas to become commercially viable, entrepreneurs should be alert to information about objective conditions such as simple arbitrage conditions that may prove profitable; or technological and market developments that bring about opportunities to create greater value and provide competitive edge. Furthermore, creative and imaginative action often impacts the type of transactions that will be entered into future market periods, making them key competencies for those seeking to succeed in business environments or industries that are unpredictable, highly competitive and with very little capital to go around.
Those who are highly sensitive to the key characteristics of schemas, can quickly and accurately activate them to notice the emergence of opportunities. However, in order to make reasonable predictions of the future and use those to plan new business moves is a real challenge. Ambivalence tends to creep in after ideation, business model generation, and especially a relatively easy fundraising phase as the one we witnessed during the initial coin offering madness. When faced with problems in development and team building; compounded by financial constraints, as is the case for many projects still active in the space today, only those forward-thinking leaders with a real grasp of solid business fundamentals and finesse will avoid seeing their dreams laid to waste.
So what does it really take to innovate and push technology value upstream in order to see adoption accelerate? Well, the answer is not an easy one to arrive at. The industry has made some attempts to assist nascent entrepreneurs in finding mentors and involving the broader tech and business communities in professional forums, conferences, seminars, and workshops. Effective to some degree perhaps, but the open-source culture has overall not effectively contributed to the successful identification of well-defined and potentially valuable opportunities for new ventures through information sharing and social networks.
Limitations in business and technical proficiency and the manipulation of cryptocurrency markets by special interests have for the most part contributed to the negative sentiment that persists and continues to cripple the possibility of broader market participation. The lag in progress is also in complete contrast to the promises that were projected in roadmaps paraded with almost unfiltered optimism by project teams during the ICO frenzy. Aside from regulatory concerns with respect to digital assets, the slow rate of development and limited capital commitment is apparent even as the developed world continues to enjoy cheap sources of money made possible by the prevailing school of thought in favour of central banks lowering interest rates and propagated by the lobby of modern monetary theory economists to create booms out of busts.
Will Projects with Demonstrative Use Cases Witness A Resurgence of Interest in their Ecosystem Tokens?
As for the when, where, and why – best to leave that to the speculators, so-called crypto OGs and trend analysts. But one thing is certain, entrepreneurs with the intuition for new business ideas must have heightened awareness of the opportunities that are overlooked by most.
More than strong self-efficacy is required to successfully navigate the yet to mature ground on which most businesses in the space have laid their foundations. More than having a vision, companies operating in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space need to be responsive and have the leadership in place to ensure swift adaptation to the changing regulatory and business environment.
With impending shocks to global financial stability and an unpredictable post-2020 business climate, wills shall be tested and motives questioned. As scepticism grows around an industry once deemed promising and one popular press claimed was on an unstoppable upward trajectory as a burgeoning sector backed by double-spent proof and immutable distributed ledger technologies, confronting the laws of business survival primarily:
product/service placement,
offer attractiveness,
growth certainty,
jurisdictional legitimacy,
impact market identification & penetration, and
necessity relative to cost of adoption
will determine which projects sink or succeed!