As we race to the end of 2017, it has been, without a doubt, Bitcoin’s year.
In fact, in no official capacity whatsoever, I’m officially calling 2017 “The Year of the Bitcoin.”
The evidence is overwhelming. The total market capitalization (MC) for cryptocurrencies (CCs) has skyrocketed from 17 billion to approximately 178 billion (as of 10/2017). Of that, Bitcoin commands an impressive 57 percent MC. In addition, www.coinmarketcap.com is now tracking over 1200 CCs with more entering the market with each passing day. If you are still unconvinced, then try to explain away the increasing mainstream media coverage of CCs throughout 2017. Perhaps only Trump dominates the news cycle more than the CC market (but I feel political news is a given every year).
The rise of CCs has a lot to do with their potential applications across large areas of the economy such as supply chain management, finance, data provenance and recordkeeping, and digital identities to name a few. More importantly, the proliferation of CCs has forced us to reconsider how we view, store, and transmit value. In the same way the internet undermined many nation-state structures and societal organizations, CCs could make obsolete some economic and financial tenets considered inviolate today.
These questions are not trivial because they deal with the future of money. For example: How can governments regulate public blockchains that are not owned by any one entity? What will it mean when a country fully backs a digital currency? How would an independent method of storing and exchanging value challenge the economic policies of nation-states? Will national governments someday want to evolve their own financial instruments as a way of combatting fraud and more precisely – monetary supplies? What about blockchain technology as applied to fully official government-backed securities?
In addition, there is the potential to empower of authoritarian governments. Blockchain technology supports the ability of dictatorships to track the movements and activities of people anywhere in the world. Using it for digital fiat currency will remove the control and privacy that was once granted to users of physical cash. Governments that use blockchain to record and manage people’s identities will be able to link identities to transactions and monitor behavior more closely (this is happening as we speak:
The above questions only scratch the surface. I’m not a prophet, and I don’t know how long Bitcoin will dominate, but even if it doesn’t survive, I’m confident that blockchain technology will continue to evolve and survive everyone reading this post.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year, most of the population has at least heard of Bitcoin or other CCs. Yet, in my experience, it is hard to find anyone that owns any or interested in jumping into the market. CCs are far from mainstream and it seems that the most mainstream thing about CCs is the strong negative reactions I receive from people when I bring up an aspect of CCs. I’m more surprised when a millennial is skeptic.
The negative perception has a lot to do with the early common misconceptions that have now shaped popular opinion. I’ve found the topic of CCs to be very polarizing when I bring it up with other people. I’ve observed that a person either loves or hates CCs and there are few moderate views.
I’m also surprised at how many people from a wide economic and educational level have strong negative views. Although I will concede that I was one of the skeptics before I decided to take a hard look at what is blockchain is all about. The CC market is difficult to grasp quickly, and there are many barriers to entry that will give the average citizen an excuse to quit. That must be remedied, and hopefully it will get more user friendly over time.
However, virtually all new technologies experience a period of acceptance. Therefore, I’ll believe that CCs, in time, will eventually have a broad acceptance. However, mainstream acceptance will accelerate if some of the common misconceptions are debunked. In this, I’ll try to do my part by writing this post and start a discussion. If a few people read my posts and come away with a more positive view of CCs then I’ll feel that I’ve did a little good.
As such, I think that this is the perfect time to discuss the common misconceptions and main arguments that I’ve personally encountered over the past year trying to persuade co-workers, friends, and family that they should at least follow the industry. I argue that even if they don’t want to invest, blockchain technology is slowly trying to reshape the world.
At any rate, I also thought I would have a little fun and put it in a “Top 10” format. Some of these topics are so polarizing that one comment section is not optimal for reading. Therefore, I decided to make each topic its own individual post while making it more fun for the readers to click on the links to discover what they are (yes, I realize my followers can see my feed list already).
However, I will reveal the one that didn’t make my list:
#11 -Why Does The Market Need Over 1000 Cryptocurrencies?
This didn’t make the list this year but it’s itching to enter the top 10. I bet it enters next year as the number of cryptocurrencies in the market naturally grows along with critics that just feel that any number is one too many.
Just a side thought: are there too many publicly traded companies in the world?
As you ponder that deep question let’s get to the good stuff:
Without further ado….
#10
#9
#8
#7
#6
#5
#4
#3
#2
#1
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Traversing the Cryptosphere,
Kryptonaut