Is like a rose
It also has its thorns
Tokens, tokens and then some more tokens
First there was 2014, one new Crypto launch after another. More or less mimicking Bitcoin {BTC}, the one that started it all, way back in 2009. Getting part of the 'Lambo' dream. Some heavy pre-mine and multi-level-marketing Crypto schemes flooded in by the dozens a day. All promising riches beyond earth its atmosphere, some even claimed they were going to settle on the moon. Some got MEME fame by connecting the bits and adding a lot of hype to it. People even took loans to get in on the game. In the case of the connected bits it was rigged and it became a living nightmare for many.
After that came the flood of the ICOs {Initial Coin Offerings}, now we were talking Lambo and a private yacht. How many of those are still around? Not even asking which ones actually delivered what they promised. Then some found out how to forking split clone existing blockchains and make a few billion bucks that way. Tempering with the difficulty algorithm made it all possible. Where we there yet? No, those who wend to live on the moon were never heard from again. They may have joined David Bowie's Major Tom somewhere in space, because their circuit has gone dead.
Next step was Lambo plus private yacht and plane. Now all that would still be needed was a small Caribbean Island. And Tokens would be the way to make it happen. The newest kind of blockchains could do it, running all kinds of Smart Contracts. Maybe that is the last Crypto wave that we need to survive. The one that pops out loads of new Blockchains, that run millions of Smart Contracts and can create billions of new Tokens within a split second. And to be honest, I lost track already a long time ago (in Blockchain time that is just a few earth years).
Some of those Smart Contract kind of Blockchains, I think, will disappear over time. Just like a lot of the Bitcoin {BTC} kind of Proof Of Work {POW} Cryptos, from 2014 on, did not make all the way to 2019. It is like a mall where a jeans-store does extremely well and all of a sudden a dozen more are opened almost every day. But who needs to buy hundreds of jeans per day? It will purge itself eventually.
Same accounts for Crypto Coins, ICOs, Smart Contract Blockchains and their Tokens. Only a few will last and actually matter to the many. (While some of the exotic fun ones, having a cult status, or a true fan base, will stay alive also.)
First to be there, way ahead of the rest
The Cryptos that just wanted to mimic Bitcoin {BTC} wont make it. No top 100 position on the Crypto Currency market for most of them. And I expect BTC to stay the absolute number one, it will be the standard. Its blockchain splitting clones will drop and become quite meaningless. With Schnorr signatures added Bitcoin {BTC} will become fungible. Other Cryptos like Litecoin {LTC} and Dogecoin {DOGE} will follow that lead, I expect. (Or even add it before BTC.)
This will make a huge difference, only a small amount of POW {Proof Of work} Cryptos will make it through the big upcoming purge. (That I expect.) Those who are free from 'governments and banks' control will outrun those who are the opposite.
Also one very important thing is the first one of its kind on 'the market', so to state. That is also a reason why Bitcoin {BTC} is hard to beat, very improbable that others will succeed in that.
Mining newly created BTC will even go on until the year 2140(!). And every halfing will cause the price to pump, as it is deflationary and only 21 million BTC will ever be created. With precious metals, like gold for instance, this is an unknown factor. (Also to carry a couple of private keys around is way more easy than a couple of gold bars.)
So, Steem is game too? Yes, it was the first one of its kind. But it wont be as valuable as Bitcoin {BTC}. It simply cannot be as it has a different capacity target and Steem inflates quite strongly. (Now I already proposed a deflationary change, but I doubt if it will get through.) Yet, I think Steem is here to stay, top hundred Crypto, with an unique kind of blockchain.
Same accounts for Bitshares, the parent of Steem and EOS the close relative. Although some might argue that Ethereum is the first Smart Contract platform, not EOS, or Bitshares, I think Ether loses in the speed and scaling department.
Ethereum is one to stay too, I think. But from a new tech point of view, as in being the market leader, EOS, Steem and Bitshares are way ahead. Even though in market capacity this might not show right away, or maybe speculators and traders look for different key aspects. Money and logic are not always best buddies.
There might be even bigger and better kinds of blockchains, or different ones. As a human being I also have my limits, making it impossible to explore all those projects. Which I have in common with most humans on earth. You see, that is an advantage being the first in the world, like Steem, just like Bitcoin {BTC}. It is tough to beat that.
Too many Tokens
At some point there will be an overload of information. The attention span will be short and lost quickly. Only servants will be able to keep track on more than a dozen Tokens and how they perform on the market.
Or how about getting more and deeper information about any Token, let alone 12 different ones on 6 platforms!? Who created it and why, who backs it, with what, what is the usage and so on and so forth.
At the EOS accounts that I hold there are already way too much Tokens, most of them I got because I had bought some EOS.
Steem has a Decentralized Application {dApp} which offers the creation of Tokens/Tribes. Many with their own website and even a video part. At first I started to use one of them, with its own tag. And I found out it uses a 50-50 payout split and I really do want a payout split slider. Though I rather stay on the Steem root blockchain, using home base, it is difficult to so, reaching all Steemians. And I tried to overcome the Token/Tribe tag content filter with an experiment, but it failed.
For me the Smart Media Tokens {SMT} are more interesting and I think they will be worth the wait. And that might actually give Steem a price boost. But there may be some ups and downs before we get to that point. Still, many Tokens will never get any value, I think, or only live for a short while. To me, that seems logical.
For Steem I can imagine how I might want to create a Smart Media Token for a typical kind of publication. And I hope it will be possible for the SMT issuer to decide on the payout split. Rather I would like to see the addition of a slider for this. There could be a loyalty SMT for customers, or followers.
It would be cool to have settings which can be used to determine how to issue the SMT. A release rate connected to the activity. Where higher demand will trigger a higher amount of Tokens to be released. Never more than a preset max cap amount, so there has to be a compressor-limiter kind of function. Ah well, I can see a lot of fun possible uses for SMTs. But I almost forgot about the title...
Fun with Tokens
Yes, it is true, I am a Shillionair. It is a fun Token on the EOS platform, a parody on a certain other thing. The name Shipple might give you a clue. So far it has no market value, as it is not (yet) at any exchange. It could be that it will get there though.
They can be bought, but I forgot the price. And there are some projects that used SHILLs (SHIPPLE) to get some other stuff done. Like donations for instance, people who donated a certain amount would get a bunch of SHILLS. That is a kind of rewarding. And it will probably be used for many other things.
Just like Montys, also an EOS blockchain Token, that can only be used to bribe, in a fun way. Lots of MEMEs connected to these fun Tokens, just like with Dogecoin. Will they ever be worth something? Who knows, it depends on what people want to do with them.
More of these fun Tokens will follow, of course. And again way too many to be able to keep track off. Probably only one, or two, will get real fame and maybe even fortune. Because it was the first to begin. Just like Bitcoin, just like Steem. And those ones will even get passed any purge, almost like there can be only one. For me it is fun to state that I am a Shillionair, one of the first 1000, always wanted to be that... :-)
And I might give away some SHILLS and MORTYS here on Steem, so stayed tuned and have a great one!
May the Cryptos be with us!
Just some digital art work of mine as a bonus
Artwork cc-by-sa
Edit: Some text changes for better reading. And changed some text because of the recent experiment results. (Experiment failed.)