Is Crypto worthless and just speculation? Read on for real world application

in #cryptocurrency6 years ago (edited)

I was talking to a friend who was very skeptical about crypto scene in general and while I do agree that the action especially in the last 2 months has been crazy I kept talking about how I think this something from future. To me this is like how computers and internet would have been like in mid 90s, of course we all know about dotcom bubble. The whole crazy period lasted several years and it was US market primarily that we are talking about but here we are talking about the world market and 24x7 action.

The conversation moved to what crypto is all about, my friend felt it was just a bunch of currencies created for payment or store of value use case which intrinsically is worth NOTHING, but have inflated value because of pure SPECULATION and GREED. I actually think it is not a wrong accussation, there are like 1300 coins out there and a lot of them do fall in that category. I see pump and dump groups working to push the value up of coins with nothing but a high level concept and nothing else.

But I don't think thats true for crypto as a whole, there are lot of solid projects and several which will invent new industries and new ways of collaborating and doing business and will build new economies and will grow even further. But but but, the ride will not be smooth for investors, there will be collapses and rises as well

A couple of examples I used during my conversation were

  1. Golem Network Token ( $GNT)

Golem decentralizes Cloud computing, cuts cost and improves utilization of computing resources. Its like AirBnb of Computing power to put it in very simple language

"Golem connects computers in a peer-to-peer network, enabling both application owners and individual users (“requestors”) to rent resources of other users’ (“providers”) machines. These resources can be used to complete tasks requiring any amount of computation time and capacity"
1__hRviOOT4Uvc6jl5A6g49Q.png

The Golem Network is Ethereum-based, so actions within the Golem blockchain are executed as smart contracts. Smart contracts and therefore the networks they support are optimized not with fiat currencies but with cryptocurrency built specifically to execute said smart contracts. Which in this case is GNT

They still have a long way to go, but going by roadmap and the use case they are addressing this is a very good example to cite to folks who are skeptical about crypto currencies having real world impact

You can get more details at their Site: https://golem.network/

GNT can be purchased on bittrex and is close to ATH right now, but seems to be sensible investment

Some other coins like this are FileCoin, SiaCoin for storage and DBC for AI just to name a few with transformative real life applications. The future just got more exciting!

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I often use the same example :). You could say Golem is a nice example of a growing category of projects empowered by the new possibilities of micropayments on a global scale, independant of your own local currency... which through tokenising assign $ value to (and as such may boost) things and acts which earlier often were shared mainly free/voluntarily... A similar project that already existed prior...and is a nice example that crypto doesn't have to...but can aid to bring ideas to fruition... is Berceley's Boinc - GRIDCOIN...or Curecoin.

Another category which is easy to understand is crowdfunding by automated contracts...or charity... no longer requiring as much hassle through banks and over currency borders as before... or how musicians who can'tokenise' their next recording and can have it funded (and the profits shared) by fans friends and family (e.g. SingularDTV's SNGLS or the Bowie Bonds revisited, ...).

Lots of long reads and books (e.g. The blockchain revolution by Tapscott) on this matter too...!

Yeah I agree. Thanks for the book recommendation, I'm going to check this one out. Any other books recommended on crypto? I have read Nathaniel Popper's book and also Andreas Antonopoulos

Hey Aram, threefold answer...
I tend to rely quiet heavily on the goodreads and amazon ratings (where those you mention did quite well too, if I remember correctly)... and then blending in some google to find reviews from the big newspapers etc...
Unfortunately I am still stuck in my first book :-) so didn't go far enough to help you with anything specific recommendation...except maybe that Tapscott is a book of vision and ideas. It might be good to go and get another more technical one too to complement it!
Further...crypto's going so fast that online sources are so valuable too...just sad there isn't so much compilation efforts done yet. Maybe that's up to us as a community to get that started :-)...

I think I did have a few identified and book marked somewhere. Can share it with others

But as you rightly said this is a field moving really fast so some things become obsolete very quickly. Also I'm really reluctant to recommend books I have not read. As you pointed out its not that easy :)

I think a good list will be both technical and non-technical, so will be quite some time before I read enough to put out a convincing list.

I strong believe, the only way to emerge winner in this space is by acquiring knowledge about these new technologies rather than mere trading or following telegram/Discord channels and placing speculative bets on unknown coins. Not that making money hurts or is wrong, you might make a bit but will not hold on to it without knowledge

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