By Daniel Jeffries.
So the doomsayers were right all along. Crypto was nothing but a bubble and it finally burst.
Good.
Maybe you’re surprised to hear that coming from me, someone who’s dedicated more than a few words to the power of crypto to change the world. Did I suddenly have a change of heart? Did I jump on the Paul Krugman bandwagon and finally realize that Bitcoin is evil? Did I join the naysayers who laugh with glee every time the price drops and arrogantly shout that Bitcoin is going to zero?
Nope.
I say good because the circus has finally left town. The cameras have packed up and gone home. The reporters are losing interest. The story is finished.
And now the crypto community can get back to doing the hard work of building the future in peace and quiet.
I’ve always said the bubble would burst and in the long run it wouldn’t matter in the least. In retrospect I think Bitcoin getting to $20,000 so fast was the worst thing to ever happen to the community. For years, Bitcoin was nothing but Internet geek money and something to laugh at, but when Bitcoin’s price rocketed higher and higher, it suddenly became something else entirely:
A threat.
Bitcoin’s furious rise scared the hell out of banks and governments everywhere. Banks saw their business models crumbling as programmable money took the world by storm and governments feared they might lose their iron-fisted control of the money supply. Authoritarian regimes raced to crush it. Regulators came out in force. The press unleashed a torrent of articles filled with fear, uncertainty and doubt.
But now as Bitcoin’s price recedes the frenzy of ignorance and fear will die with it and the community can get back to work.
It’s hard to do your work under the eye of Sauron.
When centralized powers feel like they’re under attack they lash out in fear and rage. They respond with a hundred times the firepower. There’s no way to win that fight head on. In a stand up fight, firepower always wins.
But now Bitcoin doesn’t have to win. It can go back to flying under the radar, laughed at and mocked, nothing but a toy for nerds, its critics confident it’s going straight to zero.
The powers that be can rest easy. Just like the Neanderthals who once beat back a horde of invading Homo Sapiens in the Levant, they can cheer and feel safe again. They can sleep soundly in their caves, knowing the threat has passed. They can keep using their stone and wood tools and not worry about those strange iron tools the foreign invaders had with them.
Bitcoin has a huge opportunity. It lost the first battle but it survived. Now it can retreat and regroup.
Most importantly it can evolve.
There’s an old Chinese proverb:
韬光养晦.
Hide your light, nourish in darkness.