It has come to my notice that many people cannot tell what simply makes crypto assets valuable despite the attempts to push the idea behind blockchain technology and decentralized finance.
Well, I believe the reason for this is because the majority do not understand what money is, how value is driven to it and so cannot simply decide on what concept of management or model is best for it long term.
So in order to understand why crypto is valuable and how peer-to-peer payments contribute hugely to its long-term success, we must first understand money as in Fiat and the flaws it suffers from.
What is money really?
Money is an instrument of trade, an embodiment of value that helps us as humans to easily put a price on something as opposed to the outdated trade markets model where products were exchanged for products and services were exchanged for services. It isn't easy to decide if exchanging a house for a car is a fair trade, so instead of that model of trade transactions which was called "trade by barter", money was introduced, although before money, gold was used as a medium of trade, but it wasn't quite efficient given its scarcity and added risk safekeeping.
Money as in Fiat is the government's tool, meaning that they control when this money is created, how it is given out and what associated costs follows, this includes how it is to be utilized and charges thereof. The way this is implemented is by creating policies such as spending limits, interest rates, and taxes. A lot more can be said but that isn't really necessary now.
What the government did was fool us into trading our nontaxable properties, our valuable inheritance that had no policies governing them for what was literally a "debt trap". So humans began to suffer from this day, paying taxes on what they owned and all future money they earned from labor. Money was supposed to store our value not rob us, but this is the reality of fiat and the reason an alternative had to be built - crypto!
Crypto isn't a debt trap, you don't have to pay anyone for owning them, although the attempts to get us to pay will be pushed forward but the chances of success is really slim. Nobody can tell you how to spend your crypto and when not to. Nobody can tax your crypto as banks can easily debit your account for whatever bullshit they or the central banks come up with.
Also, speaking of banks, the fact that crypto leverages smart contracts to facilitate transfers otherwise known as financial transactions, exchange or trade makes it an alternative to centralized banking, eliminating the intermediaries means less risk of unlawful treatments and more control to individuals.
The expansion of peer-to-peer networks
First money, then everything else. The government beginning with the ruling in of fiat currencies had been able to manipulate the global trade markets, thus, the people and ensure that at all point, we were being robbed to feed their greed. With peer-to-peer payments, they are put in a position of irrelevance and inability to control the markets.
Peer-to-peer networks emerge to put back control to who it should belong to - the people. So ultimately, if one wants to cut through all the long talks and technological terms being used to describe this idea, this infrastructure, the simple way to look at it is that crypto restores power to the people.
When something so valuable is no longer controlled by a few, a balance is created in the system and a much more fair economic environment emerges whereas the masses can tap into diverse opportunities without any limitations previously ruled into the system by the government.
I hope this straightens it all out. Do leave a comment if any.