The comparisons already started.
Tell me if you heard this before.
Ethereum gas prices are through the roof. Bitcoin is running. Bubbles are forming everywhere. Stupid money is pouring into crypto schemes that will ultimately go bust.
Is this 2020 or 2017?
On the surface, much looks the same. Outsiders, or those who just look at things from a shallow perspective, might be apt to believe we are seeing history repeat itself. Of course, when taken in this context, it is possible to draw that conclusion.
However, things are a lot different than they were 3 years ago. It is true that things did not end well that time. Nevertheless, we see many reasons to be optimistic about things going forward.
To start, the industry came a long way in the past few years. Infrastructure construction went full steam ahead after the market crashed. This is attracting some larger players.
Speaking of said players, Wall Street and other institutions are starting to jump in. Microstrategy's announcement that they were purchasing Bitcoin to the tune of $250 million shows how far things have come. This firm is using the largest cryptocurrency to de-risk. This means that it feels, with all that is taking place, Bitcoin is less risky than traditional assets at the moment.
We could not make this statement in 2017.
In 2020, cryptocurrency was validated. No longer is it possible to shame this industry. Wall Street and banking institutions are getting involved. Central banks are looking at setting up their own digital currencies. Many governments see an opportunity to enhance their economies through the embracing of cryptocurrency and the associated technologies.
Again, this was not present a few years ago.
Also, much of the latest craze is attributed to Decentralized Finance (DeFi). This contrasts with the last run which was the ICO craze. So what is the difference?
From my perspective, there is no doubt as to the legitimacy of DeFi. Certainly, it is a fair point to state that what we see now has a ponzi feel to it. Without a doubt, there are schemes out there which are frauds and will collapse. At the same time, a case could be made that this is hype beyond what is sensible behavior. Too many are caught up in the emotion (greed/fomo) of yield farming. Inevitably, this has to end and not in a good way.
That said, the underlying value of DeFi cannot be overlooked. This is starting a wave which will likely see a lot of the centralized aspect of finance attacked. The power that is presently wielded will be wrestled away as more money finds its way into the system. Of course, before that can happen to the degree that puts it on the big stage, a lot of development needs to take place creating those platforms that are not ponzi or simply get rich quick hits.
More decentralized infrastructure needs constructing with applications that seek to provide a sensible alternative to the present offerings that come from Wall Street. Replacing one system wrought with fraud with another of similar ilk does not really get us anywhere.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that DeFi has an amazing future, especially when we consider the fact that the world of cryptocurrency just keeps growing each day. As projects issue more tokens while gaining in value, the amount of wealth held in this asset class keeps expanding. Over time, people are going to need to place to put that to work. Hence, DeFi is the solution even if it presently is covered in warts.
Finally, we see a larger industry than what was present in 2017. By every metric, things have grown (other than the total market cap). There are more wallets on both Ethereum and Bitcoin, two of the most active blockchains. We also saw the emergence of EOS and, now, Cardano. These were not even operational a few years ago. Applications keep turning up that offer people incentives to participate. Overall, we saw a lot of development that is paying dividends.
We also are sitting at the edge of another explosion. NFTs are about to grab all the headlines. For the past year, the discussion was lurking just below the surface. In 2020, the development that is taking place is being overshadowed by the attention that DeFi is receiving. Nevertheless, we should not mistake the lack of publicity as a sign that development is falling off.
NFTs are a logical progression as we move deeper into a digital world. Tokenizing assets is really the only thing that makes sense going forward. The idea of operating using paper and centralized entities such as government departments will not hold up under the transition to Web 3.0. We know governments fail. At the same time, efficiency is something that is discussed with regularity. Here we see an alternative that is imply better than what is presently in place.
Closed systems are starting to get a bad rap. Even Microsoft realized that the future is not in proprietary software. Gamers, for example, are not going to be happy, down the road, at playing a game which does not yield them anything of monetary value. It simply will not make any sense to play a game that does not offer assets that are backed by NFTs.
For these reasons, NFTs are going to be in the spotlight over the next couple years. Trillions in assets will be tokenized in this manner. This will be a combination of new assets created while existing assets, such as real estate, start to move in that direction. Expect the former to dominate early on but the later will come on strong as the infrastructure is put in place.
In conclusion, on the surface it is easy to conclude that we are now seeing a mirror of 2017. However, if we look a little deeper, we notice the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency is completely different than it was a few years ago. Thus, I believe the outcome, this time, will be much different than what took place then.
If you found this article informative, please give an upvote and rehive.
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Exciting times!✨
Thank you for phrasing something that I was feeling but couldn't put into words.
I love how you manage to compile all this knowledge and summarize it in a way that's graspable for ( pretty much ) non-tech people too.
Enjoy your weekend!
Thanks for the kind words. I am glad you find my articles of value.
It will keep me motivated to continue to push more content out.
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Motivating people is one of my aims in life, so I - in turn am happy to hear you say this :<)
✨
This is exactly what I like about @taskmaster4450le's posts too.
:<)
Great points made in the article! I think a lot of the 2017 comparisons are coming from people that have a lot of FOMO in their mind and think since we're seeing a bit of rallying right with crypto, that it is automatically just like 2017 when the circumstances from then were much more different than now.
I think looking at the price of certain tokens leads to the conclusion as opposed to focusing upon all the development that took place in different areas.
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Despite the similarities with 2017, I hope that this time we will be able to have different final results.
With DeFi and NFTs on the rise, I believe this could take crypto to another level. Maybe we will see ETH again as one of the protagonists in the market.
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It will be interesting to see what happens through the rest of this year for sure. Enjoyed your analysis of the differences between 2017 and now.
Beautiful comparison with all aspects. Lot of projects have started in these 3 years. I hope situation will be better this year.
I think, considering the point we are starting from, the rest of the year will be much better.
We will see more innovation and growth.
It is happening all over the place.
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Your current Rank (38) in the battle Arena of Holybread has granted you an Upvote of 17%
Caused by attributed (psychological) value instead of internal value of tokens, cryptocurrency world could give people sometimes disappointing sometimes cheerful emotions. Also, scam ICO's and unsatisfied expectations are common problems. But this new coin deserves to be taken serious. I have written an informative post about Ethereum eRush (EER). Please take a look at. I would like to hear your critics.
https://hive.blog/hive-125125/@hayirhah/ethereum-erush-eer-brings-new-perspective-on-cryptocurrency-proof-of-live-protocol-and-the-easiest-mining-on-the-world
You'll know things have come full circle when they start talking about the DOT COM bubble again. People will conveniently forget that the DOT COM bubble only happened once.
I believe that mass adoption is coming during this 4 year cycle. I expect a 1st world banking collapse by autumn 2022. This summer marks the beginning of a massive upswing that I predicted 3 years ago...
I said that there would be a year long bear market from Feb 2018 - Feb 2019 which turned out surprisingly accurate. We've been sideways in a range from 3K to 14K since early 2019.
If the pattern holds, I think we'll see at minimum $100K per bitcoin by the end of 2021 with new ATH by the end of this year. With hyperinflation coming we could see over 1M/ btc by 2025 adjusted for inflation (I think by then, pricing in USD will be meaningless).
I don't think bitcoin will be the only currency, far from it. We will see an explosion of new ones and national fiat everywhere bleeding into the internet of money by 2025. By then people will begin to work directly for crypto without fiat onramps or offramps.
By summer of 2026, blockchain logistics will have taken over existing supply chains.
We have a very serious danger ahead too, in regard to the vaccine that is coming. This is the final push of the eugenicists to render freedom of speech moot. This will be attempted by remote IoT programming of the mRNA in our cells fulfilling a GMO transhumanist agenda. This technology doesn't exist yet, but patents are being put in place to make such control a reality.
https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2020060606
The first amendment will go from challenging "freedom of speech" to "freedom of thought" once thousands of flexible microneedles latch onto the neurons in our brain. This will make Aristotle's axiomaticos (accusation/acquittal) paradigm obsolete in the legal framework.
It will be for the similar reason an insanity defense renders a person not responsible. When your individuality is gone and you have no "agency" to act, blame cannot be rightfully assigned. Some people will no longer be responsible for themselves because they become borg incapable of independent thought.
This process has already begun decades ago with the erosion of individual liberties. While doing this, authorities still kept the blame in place wrongfully when individuals had lost significant agency to affect results.
Some people will willingly accept this tradeoff as hard as it is to believe for those of us who are libertarian. They will take the blue pill and head into the VR fantasy land being set up for them as it will seem more real than reality.
Very good assessment. It seems obvious that DeFi is currently riding a wave of hype and is approaching mania stage - just like the ICOs did. It will end badly for many investors.
I'm more interested in the NFT and tokenised assets. Would have thought that would be the next wave, but maybe I'll have to wait a couple more years :)
上午好，看起来很不错的样子
Ether will adapt...