Faith and the art of Belief
My faith in the veracity of the crypto exchanges is not exactly 5 star at the moment and while some perform better than others, it remains to be seen who will survive when regulators apply the same code of conduct that currently applies to almost everything else that exists with a similar mouthfeel and taste. The exchanges seem to be exploited in different ways by manipulators from within and without. From the outside the pro-trader who is literally shooting fish in a barrel and leveraging a lot of spending power, with groups of closely aligned interests working in sync to their collective gain. Expressly what they are not allowed to do in their day jobs in regulated trading sectors. Obvious but inevitable, with little consequences and enormous gains to be made.
Then from within, the exchanges seem literally fixed or rigged in plain sight. They almost all seem to close wallets for deposits to their own position, with the endless maintenance message. For example one exchange has an unreasonably high price for SBD currently, but their deposits have been closed for what seems like endless days. Steemians with an account there would be frustrated to learn that they cannot sell their steem dollars in exchange for what seems like a too good to be true price. That's because it is !
Who to Point the Stinky Finger at ?
I think the exchanges are largely to answer for the lack of faith in crypto and with implications of staff, price fixing (which is entirely reasonable to imagine) given the huge sums involved, I am not surprised blockchain is having a real make or break moment. I believe the technology will win out, but crypto might end up relegated to could have been, while a handful of people walk off into the sunset with many millions of hopeful's dollars in their pockets.
It also doesn't help that ICO' raising $30m immediately plunge $20m back into fiat from Ethereum sell offs, literally as soon as they close the gate. While there are undoubtedly some gamechanging projects being launched this year, (and I will them to succeed) in the face of such multifaceted challenges of resistance from all four corners of the old financial world, there are more than a handful of Moneygrab projects, which threaten to collapse the fragile ecosystem of cryptocurrencies. In saying that, we're still in Wild West territory and pioneers win or lose, early adopters often pay the price for the privilege so I expect things to settle down before the end of 2018. Investors may have to forfeit 3D (Daily Double Digit) movements in exchange for acceptance / survival / adoption. of course this is all just IMHO thanks
Decentralised David Vs the New Goliath
There are interesting developments in the exchange world. Decentralised exchanges may have significant challenges ahead of them, but they offer a totally different approach from an organisational perspective and how apt is a decentralised exchange when we consider what blockchain could / is promised to / & should really deliver.
Otherwise the large centralised exchanges could easily become the slightly lower fee version of the banks they seek to challenge. BlockChain often promises to cut out the intermediary and while that's laudible, some brokers have a use. Their expertise can sometime proffer a better deal and their contacts, experience and landscape knowledge be worth a fee. With large centralised exchanges, there is no conceptual problem to their existence, but in a highly unregulated, often borderless, nebulous world and in some cases with totally anonymous ownership and location, the landscape is fraught with peril for the average punter.
this article written entirely for entertainment purposes, the views expressed are IMHO only and are not directed at any one exchange or individual traders. The blockchain revolution will continue and it's all about the technology, the coins are just a token of exchange.