Utility is hugely important @taskmaster4450, which is why we need to work to shed this image of cryptocurrencies as a super high risk exotic investing derivative that ambitious young developers use as a gateway to a lambo.
To be honest, that has ZERO appeal outside a very small and narrow niche of the population.
One of our greatest challenges — as I see it — comes from inside the crypto ecosystem, itself: In order for cryptos to gain traction as actual currencies they have to become utilitarian and stable, which is the exact opposite of what those harboring "Lambo dreams" would want. A token that doesn't swing more than possible +/-50% in a year is BORING to a large core segment of the crypotosphere whose lives revolve around the question "when Moon?"
So we need to move towards a place where the mindset shifts from the idea that you profit from the actual coins, and instead you profit from what you DO with the coins... the coins themselves stop being the income source; innovation in Dapps becomes the income source.
Hive as a "multi-faceted content platform where people get rewarded" is certainly a good start, but it has the fundamental weakness that that a great many of the market participants view it as simply a way to get some tokens they then exchange for fiat. And that doesn't add value, in terms of building the spread of cryptos.
For more than three years, I've been floating the idea that someone needs to create a peer-to-peer ecommerce front end here, in the style of eBay/Etsy/Craigslist in their earliest incarnations, before they "went corporate." We have a high speed blockchain with lots of capacity, virtually feeless secure instant transfers, an existing active community to jump start usage. It would be a great way to start people down the road of thinking in terms of "Here's my box of old Lego; I'm selling it for 50 Hive!" rather than "This is US $25, which translates to about 50 Hive."
And yes, I realize it's going to be a slow gradual process, but it strikes me such a Dapp is a ripe cherry ready for the picking, from someone with a bit of ambition and vision. And let's be patient... it has taken eBay almost 25 years to reach "cultural icon" status...
A sort of "template" has already been started in the form of the LeoShop which — however — is only electronic goods, so far. It wouldn't be a stretch to develop it further to include physical goods as well. Not sure if @khaleelkazi and crew are up for the challenge, but somebody ought to take this one on!
Sorry about the "blog length" post, but this is an important discussion!
I couldn't agree more @denmarkguy. We do need to create marketplaces where people can acquire goods and services they require in exchange for crypto. I, too, have been beating this drum for a while.
Leoshop is a start and needs to be expanded from there.
There are millions of ways this can go and, frankly, there needs to be thousands of shops all catering to the different currencies out there. Of course, we are not concerned with all.
But imagine if every tribe, as an example, had a shop with pertinent products for that tribe AND took their currency as payment.
Now multiple they out a thousand times.
Then I think we would have a different image outside the cryptosphere.
Posted Using LeoFinance
This was done in PeerHub and Steemfiles. Both of these closed unfortunately. What I see is in the marketcap of a all the coins, the "stable-coins" are like 2% of of the combined marketcap.
Yet, even though Tether is bound to what we mostly use as a unit-of-account, Bitcoin remains accepted in many more places than any other crypto-currency and Tether just doesn't have that penetration. The combination the usefulness of being a peer-to-peer crypto-currency and the network effects of being the first such currency, has made Bitcoin the king of coins.
The problem with the peer-to-peer crypto shop is the ever present tax man.
Lemonade stands get shut down due to the State wanting its cut of the $12.34 profit earned by a bunch of 10 year olds... a crypto shop will be much worse.
However, one can accept crypto as payment through a regulated payment processor such as Bitpay or simply head over to Gyft and buy a gift card with crypto for use nearly anywhere.
Of course, there's nothing to prevent someone from accepting any form of payment for any given good or service. I could open a shop and start accepting old cigarette butts as payment, if I want to... However, the tax guy is going to ask you to convert the value of that good or service into USD and pay the tax on the transaction... also in USD.
The rise of crypto as a preferred payment option can only occur once the State loses control over the market place. This has already happened in places like Venezuela... when basic supplies become wildly expensive, regular citizens will seek to settle transactions in a more peer-to-peer environment.