- The Land of Whales & Beggars -
A Brief Glimspe into the Crypto Ecosystem Landscape and Species*Edit: grammar error or 2 fixed
Introduction
This original article has been written by myself, a 27 year old crypto aficionado having spent the last 3 years of my life fully immersed in the Crypto ecosystem. I ask my readers not to consider this a definitive nor fully completed version , however it is my hope that this collected and compiled information presented here will help people better understand what they are dealing with as they venture out into the exciting and potentially dangerous world of Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrency .
Overview
Observations of the ecosystem will be broken down into two main sections in this paper:
1. The Landscape of the Crypto Ecosystem
A look into past, present and future of Crypto
2. List of Species found inhabiting the Crypto Ecosystem
From whales to pond scum and other sorts of creatures
The Landscape of the Crypto Ecosystem
Sometime around 2010-2011 a friend of mine mentioned briefly about a new form of currency that he was able to generate with his computer and use online to purchase various things. At the time I thought he was some sort of raving lunatic and didn't really understand the whole idea behind blockchain based pseudonymous P2P digital currency at all. He referred to it as "Bitcoin" and I distinctly remember him telling me each one of these invisible coins were roughly $3.00 a piece. Now at the time I was aware it was possible to transfer money online, I'd done so before to purchase items on ebay via paypal, but Bitcoin and cryptocurrency I shrugged off at the time. Not coming across it again until a few years later.
Crypto (in particular Bitcoin) at this point in time was still very much an almost esoteric underground thing with only a small collective of world wide users actively mining and using these coins. The really early adopter phase attracted technical minded folks, nerds, programmers, engineers as well as the venture capitalist who saw the potential of the coin and traded it as if it were a stock. Bitcoin allowed people to transfer value across the internet and people with the know how began to slowly create sites/services and markets to allow users to spend these coins.
This is around the era when legends such as Lazlo's 10,000 BTC Pizzas and Dread Pirate Roberts infamous SilkRoad had started to be developed. Users traded Bitcoin amongst themselves for goods and those with foresight to began development services allowing use of this new Bitcoin technology . The Crypto Ecosystem with the news coverage, millions of worldwide users and endless services for crypto coins we know now had not yet started to be fully developed. In the beginning no one really knew what exactly to do with this new found power that Bitcoin instilled in its users, allowing them to be able to send value to anyone, anywhere.
Fast forwarding a few years to around 2013 we see Bitcoin starting to gain popularity beyond its previous years.
More reference of Bitcoin and other crypto currency can be seen more frequently now and the price this year ended up topping out around $260. I had started mining bitcoin with my old MSI laptop after realizing that maybe I should have paid attention to my friend years ago when he'd told me about this new technology. Difficulty on the network for mining was (only) 12,000,000 or so and I was able to mine a few thousand satoshi a day easily using spare CPU/GPU power. It was around this point and time that I became obsessed with collecting Bitcoin and ended up quitting my full time job as a welder to pursue a career and stake out my own chunk of land within the BTC ecosystem. Some time during 2013 the ASIC miners started becoming a reality and unless you bought specialized mining hardware you were no longer able to mine efficiently with spare GPU power. This had a few unforeseen side effects on the the Crypto Ecosystem, with the main one ending up with the centralization of mining power taken from individual users and put into commercially run mining farms. Large amounts of money were being used for research and development into faster and more efficient mining gear and with the private and public usage of ASIC miners it set off what one could only describe as an "arms race" to outfit their mining farms with the most profitable devices.
(one of the first publically available ASIC Bitcoin Miners)
Present day, Bitcoin's recent halving buzz still lingers thick in air. As investors and early adopters speculate on prices, the supply of cheap coins mined back when the block reward was 25 BTC is being slowly being diminished and bought up by those understanding that cost of production of Bitcoin now has basically doubled. Bitcoin is now one of THOUSANDS of cryptocurrencies in existence, However is regarded to as the "gold standard" of crypto coins and is often a main trade pair on exchanges. Boasting user numbers nearly reaching 100 Million. Most alternative crypto currencies offer little value or innovation, however some exceptions (such as STEEM) do exist and potential investors should always be aware of potential vapourware currencies and projects. Literally millions of people are now involved with Crypto and Bitcoin and nearly anything possibly imagined can be purchased online or in person using cryptocurrency transfers.
The future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general is hopeful but uncertain. Many countries have moved towards regulation in regards to digital assets and currencies and with these regulations comes taxation, closer inspection of the users and ultimately more restriction and policing on networks that were initially released with the intention of having no central authority or source. As we move onwards towards the future with crypto, we must always remember that it was created to take the power of bestowing value away from the governments that would have it centralized and under their control and give it back to the people.
List of Species found inhabiting the Crypto Ecosystem
Below is a list of types of species that can be found in the Crypto Ecosystem. This is not a definitive list by any means and feel free to add to it in a reply below. I'll do my best to add other users observations of species in the ecosystem to the list as I can.
Common Species:
Users - By far the most common of the species in the Crypto Ecosystem. Nearly every entity encountered in the Crypto Ecosystem is a direct descendant from this species. In most cases just exposure to cryptocurrency alone is enough to turn your average human into a User. The user generally heard about Bitcoin and Crypto some time around or after 2014. Holds greater than .01 BTC and less than 1 BTC at any given time generally. Uses their coins to purchase goods and services offered by crypto coin enabled merchants.
Beggars - Although examples are easily found outside of the Crypto Ecosystem, one of the first species encountered besides Users when one enters the Bitcoin realm is the Beggars. These individuals have absolutely no dignity nor respect for themselves or others around them and will often ask strangers for crypto currencies. Giving them coins only further enforces the behaviour. Never send crypto currency to beggars, if you want to help them ask them if you can ship them some food from amazon or something. Holds less than .01 BTC and if given coins will likely use them to gamble and likely lose them.
Developers - A widely diverse and somewhat advanced species capable of typing many magical languages. Regarded by many internet users as "wizards" the developer is able to use his mind to summon into existence his very own services and crypto currencies. This species is the reason the ecosystem even exists in the first place. The most notable of all, and the alias to which Bitcoin was released under is "Satoshi Nakamoto". Holds between 0.01-0.5 BTC and if a broke Developer who hasn't had a successful project yet, with upwards ranges of over 100+ BTC if they manage to create their own successful cryptocurrency or service for the ecosystem.
Miners - Once your average crypto user running a spare processor to gain Bitcoin, Miners are now generally businesses or large private operations that have invested heavily into SHA-256 mining gear in order to do the POW hashing that the Bitcoin blockchain needs to carry out transactions. Very few hobby mining setups are commercially available currently to users at the moment that provide previous ROI. Holds anywhere between 0 to 100+ BTC depending on if the price of of BTC is high enough to sell at a profit to compensate for electricity use.
Gamblers - A species craving high stakes betting and large profits. The Crypto Ecosystem and it's many gambling services and sites offer odds and payouts that are seldom seen on the planet besides places like Macau and Vegas. The freedom to move funds quickly and the nearly inexhaustible amount of crypto gambling related games in existence ensures money flow in and out of both the Gamblers and the Crypto Ecosystem's pockets. Holds between 0.01 to 50+ BTC depending on how lucky they are that day.
Investors - Bringing large sums of money into the markets in hopes of catching profit on the swings, the Investor species are generally extremely risk adverse and often use Bitcoin to purchase other crypto currencies and Altcoins on exchanges built similar to stock exchanges. The volatile markets and highly speculative nature of the crypto ecosystem appears to draw them in. Holds at minimum 1+ Bitcoin/Altcoin or has just liquidated it on the markets for profits.
Scammers - If feces had the ability to form sentences and swindle you out of cryptocurrency it would come embodied as the Scammers. This species is extremely predatory on other species and given the irreversible nature of most cryptocurrencies the ecosystem acts as a natural magnet for this sort of depraved and sad individual. Often but not always accompanied by: Deals too good to be true, poor fractured english and disappearing when you least expect it. Holds cryptocurrency only on rare occasions after stealing them from other species.
Rare Species:
Early Adopters - Users from the early days of Bitcoin before it reached it's current levels of popularity. Many Early Adopters either sold their Crypto long ago or lost it on old hard drives. Many of these Early Adopters became very wealthy as Crypto became more popular and more money moved into the markets as the Ecosystem developed into what you see today. In a lot of cases these people merely heard about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency before most did and decided it was something of value. Holds anywhere between 0 to 100+ Bitcoins. May be hidden in old wallets some where, private keys may be lost.
Whales - Individuals of massive value worth crypto from either being lucky enough to be early adopters and hold on to their low difficulty mining rewards or people with large amounts fiat currency that they've decided to invest into the Crypto Ecosystem. The Crypto Ecosystem has created many Whale millionaires out of Developers, Gamblers and Miners. Although most whales you'll encounter had large sums of wealth before they ventured into the Crypto Ecosystem.
This concludes this paper, If you have any species you've encountered while in the Crypto Ecosystem please feel free to reply below and I'll try and add it to the list.
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I bought once 2 pizzas for 10 000 deogecoins... my 5 minutes of fame in Polish TV :D
but I hope... soon I will have to talk about Steemit :) Keep finger crossed :)
hilarious story. do you hate yourself now?
Do not have any reason for that ;)
This was pretty interesting and informative. You are good at explaining stuff, let's see what else you got. upvoted :D
Thanks sir. I appreciate the vote and the feedback.
it 's really worth more than 54 cents. unfortunately, my upvote is <1cent but i think that's good too afterall :))
I was told to give my votes away . I double dare . Here we go , wondering how many cents I have to give away
Since I just started, I am a Sea Monkey… I don't really exist… Yet.
Nice read!
Hah klye, i truly enjoyed it.