The polarization in the Bitcoin world deepens with every major increase in the price of Satoshi Nakamoto's brain child. From an obscure Github repository frequented by nerds into cryptography and stuff, the software that consumes now tremendous amounts of energy evolved into an unprecedented social phenomenon. You can hear people on the streets talking about it, there are dozens of thousands of "Bitcoin investment specialists" and even Wall Street caved in and accepted that there is such thing as a "Bitcoin futures".
There are 2 major camps: the hardcore hodlers and the notorious naysayers. For simplicity: HH and NN .The space between them used to be filled with intermediary cohorts, but as the price grows, these are migrating hastily towards one end of the slope.
And for the NN (notorious naysayers) there are at least 3 major concerns supporting their doom predictions:
- Bitcoin is not used as an actual currency
- There is no underlying value of the digital asset
- Something doesn't increase in value just because you "hodl" (or stick to it)
As surprising as it may be for many of my followers here, I found all of them to be correct. Yes, they are true. All of them. And, at the same time, I'm very optimistic towards Bitcoin.
How come?
Well, the hype about Bitcoin, it's not about Bitcoin. It's about what Bitcoin stands for.
You know, there is this inertia of breakthrough concepts that kinda acts like a tsunami. First, there is a slow wave and then another wave comes from behind and adds up to the momentum and so on and so forth. With every news about Bitcoin there is another wave coming from behind and adding to the momentum. But the process is very slow. It can take years, just like a tsunami is not born in a second.
These Bitcoin waves that are giving the impression of a bubble are about understanding, not about money. With every news, more and more people are getting a better understanding of the underlying technology. With every new transaction made by the average Joe, there is a new group of neurons firing. And abstract concepts like "decentralization" or "immutability" are getting translated in real world useful things like: "complete access to my own money" or "honesty".
Each and every person that buys into Bitcoin - even the speculators - doesn't necessarily buys the token, but the technology.
From this perspective, Bitcoin acts like a buffer. A buffer holding the hopes of a new generation into a better world.
As you may know, I'm not big into Bitcoin as an asset, and the words you've read so far are confirming it clearly. But I am big into alts. I am big into the technology. I am big into Steemit, or the new attention economy. Big into appcoins like Filecoin, EOS and all the other tiny tokens that are just "not there yet".
Of course they aren't. They need time to mature. And the influx of energy towards them comes through the Bitcoin buffer.
So the price of Bitcoin is not about the Bitcoin per se. It's not an indicator of the Bitcoin value as a "bounty". It's just a temporary place for all this value that shifts from an outdated economic model into something new. As these new appcoins will mature, Bitcoin will slowly start to plateau.
Just like, two hundreds years ago, when we experienced a similar shift into human economics, gold also stopped being the common denominator, and "melted" into paper money.
And here is where HH (hardcore hodlers) are correct: if you hodl, then your chances for a better start in this new world are better.
As simple as that.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
If you're new to Steemit, you may find these articles relevant (that's also part of my witness activity to support new members of the platform):
The major value of bitcoin currently is it's the foundation crypto. It's currently how most people enter and leave the market and the base pair for most trading. Even if it's technology isn't upgraded until these two things change I see the price of btc long term continuing to increase.
Lets face it, all coins are still somewhat pegged to the value of bitcoin. Its the standard in crypto. Even with all its flaws the price of bitcoin can always be paired with another crypto. This makes it universal to all that bitcoin is king. If bitcoin was to crash now I would not think any other crypto would avoid a fall. Even with all the great things other altcoins can do and bitcoin can not it is still the standard but one day it will shift. No empire lasted eternity. Rome was not built in a day and neither was the growth in bitcoin. Most of bitcoin gains come from the past two years if I am not mistake. The first few years it was still worth cents to a few dollars. Now can't wait to have ten years pass and see how much some of today's altcoins worth becomes.
this is probably one of the best posts you have made. brilliant. could not agree more. people have no idea how the technology behind this is gonna change the world around them and the digital highways they frequent.
Thank you, mate :)
I see Bitcoin as a place to hold wealth and other altcoins for use in daily transactions since the value of bitcoin will be high. For example, you wouldn't use a bitcoin to buy lunch, but you may use a coin of lesser value.
i think you can not think bitcoin out oof the system anymore just like you can not think precious metals out of the system.
The Gap between HH and NN is expanding rapidly. Although i like myself to be one HH, what concerns me is that BTC still isn't used as a Currency except few instances. Maybe in near future i hope. We tend to weight BTC in terms of fiat money like $ and not as an actual currency. It reminds me of BCH CEO Mike Falkvinge who said in an interview that 'There will come a time when BTC will rise to such height that USD or Euro will become obsolete in terms of BTC and they ($,€) will crumble in their own weight.' Imagining the Scene Right now.
I agree. Bitcoin is a start of something new. Many people doesnt know that our world is changing really fast. There is a lot of big world projects in crypto. It's still in early developing. With bitcoin you can buy a portion of every project.
I ponder what happens if BitCoin does reach USD$1,000,000.
Does everyone who as 1 BTC or more cash out and a walk away with their $600,000 after taxes?
What does that do to the economy?
Will it crash the economy? Cause hyper-inflation? Hyper-deflation?
If it crashes the economy and people lose faith and trust in the USD and BTC, what happens next?
Do only those with hard currency (gold and silver) end up with wealth?
Who has been collecting the hard currency as BitCoin rises?
Why has gold/silver prices dropped as BitCoin rises, shouldn't they also be a hedge against fiat currencies?
I can only ponder conspiracy theories and fantasy. I do not have the background to really figure out the possible scenarios. Heck! It is probably hard for the people who do have that background.
Interesting times ahead.
Interestingly, neither is many actual fiat currencies.
But, bitcoin's adoption is becoming greater and greater.
To set up a CC payment system for a new company takes about a month, and a ton of money for the equipment.
Bitcoin, can be set up (by someone that knows what they are doing) in about 10 minutes (max) with any tablet you had handy.
I am fairly sure that there will soon be a team of people going door to door selling an all-in-one bitcoin payment acceptance system.
There is no underlying value to any of the current fiat currencies. There was this one guy who was going to make gold the underlying value... they invaded his country and killed him.
There are people hodl'ing gold, and... well, it is just a pretty yellow rock. And will probably be worthless. As in people won't touch the stuff because its the devils money (Zeros, Buffet, Rots-children)
So, looking at crypto's in a factual comparison, cryptos actually look a lot better than there alternative.
What is happening in crypto space?.. LTC up by 75%, ETher by 30% and SBD already gained whopping 1000%.
Great post, and I have to say that I agree. At first I was a big fan of Bitcoin, but I also got more and more interested in Altcoins.
I like to compare it to aircraft. The first aircraft ever by the Wright brothers was absolutely awesome, but can hardly be compared to the aircraft we fly today. It takes tons of time and human effort to develop a technology to its full potential, and this is exactly why a lot of Altcoins will eventually overtake Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is just a brilliant idea, but will certainly be surpassed by Ethereum or Litecoin for example.
very nice and interesting post!
thanks again and again
thanks for your post :)
yeah its right and i think mostly exchangers deal with btc and all of btc holders not sale it and new person buy it to see its price and everyday many new persons buy it
it's digital currency & very profitable currency
Articles are meaningful, more want writing.
@dragosroua I am developer of steemlinked platform, a community for professionals on Steem. At @steemlinked we are providing features like community building, hiring professionals in various fields, escrow contract based remote work with easy cross border payments with minimum fees.
We also have a feature of having an escrow agent who will hold money for the contract and get fees. An escrow agent can keep his fees between 0 - 25 Steem per contract. We are also planning to have our own smart media tokens for incentivizing the community once Smart media tokens are officially available.
I appreciate the way you are contributing a lot to the community as a witness and would love to collaborate with you.
As a part of initial fund raising, I would like to offer you an opportunity to become an escrow agent on our platform.
The application is set to launch on 1 st January and we are looking for SP Delegation to raise funds and awareness about the platform.
To become an escrow agent prior to 1 St January, You need to delegate attest 50 SP to @steemlinked account.
All Steem delegations will be monitored and investors will be added as our first escrow agents.
You can contact me on Steemit.chat/@aneilpatel to discuss more about our vision.
I like your views on BTC but I do disagree with 2 points:
If you view BTC as a place to store value like you do with currency (much like a savings account or 401k) it has very similar properties to the 2 examples I have given. Especially right now for people that want to protect their retirement savings from the impending stock market correction.
This leads me into my next point. There is tremendous value in BTC in the fact that for the most part (up until BTC futures began trading) BTC cannot be easily manipulated to favor the rich. BTC is not controlled by a Federal Reserve or Central Bank. It is not manipulated by corporate conglomerates. It allows you to make transactions internationally without having to use a so called"middle man." To me this gives BTC tremendous value. Although it cannot currently be used for everyday purchases that time may come and if/when it does I see no point in continuing to use our archaically manipulated, fiat currency. I know I said, "manipulated" like 20x but that's what immediately comes to my mind when thinking of the Federal Reserve's puppet.
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but the main motive to use it as an transaction entity is being getting lost slowly seem just like an investment