(Before reading this post I would like to say that this is my opinion, you might agree or disagree)
Cryptocurrencies, a style of life or a business ?
A style of life ?
At the beginning, everybody wanted a currency that could cover the others. A currency that was easy to transfer from a point A to a point B. And so it was. With the apparition of the Bitcoin, a lot of things were easier, faster and safer. This leaded to a lot of changes: no fear of thieves that break into the house and steal all the money, small amounts of money in the pockets because of the telephone transfers, no need for credit cards this resulting in no fees and many and many. This currency was like a miracle for the world. It was like an imaginary deposit from every person's mind that could be use for almost everything.
This was it's main purpose, the globalization, an equivalent "thing" for everybody.
A business ?
Now, let's start with the part that we are conscious of. The economy is now in our hands because there are no rules to make a certain cryptocurrency greater of lower than a value X. You can invest in a cryptocurrency or you can withdraw your money in exchange. Before showing why the economy depends on us let's a simple situation:
Let's say that there were only 200 bitcoins available over the world. At the t = 0 (right after it was created) let's say that 3 people invest in bitcoin 100$ each .. that means each bitcoin will now have the value of :
3(people) * 100$ (each) / 200 bitcoins = 1.5$ <- now this is the first value on the market
Each of them will have 66.6 bitcoins (200 bitcoins / 3)
Let's say that 2 of them give up and the 2 * 66.6 bitcoins are coming back in the system.
Now, in the second week, let's say that a billionaire invests 100$ mil dollars and buy the rest of bitcoins (2 * 66.6)
Now, in the system will be +100$ mil dollars and the value of a bitcoin will be 500.000$
From this simple situation .. the first man who invested 100$ at the right time we can see that now he will have no lass than 500.000 $ * 66.6 bitcoins, this means that he will going to relax for the rest of his life with this 100$ investition.
Now, the above case is the happy one. But let me show you the worst one:
Let's say that a rich man invests a lot of his money buying a new cryptocurrency which's value will increase from
5$ to 250$, the rich man having 50% of the currencies. This is his trap against the world. Everybody will buy that cryptocurrency and because of the money who enter in the system the rich man will have the same amount of coins but their value will increase a lot.
200.000 coins (1.000.000 $)-> 1st day (2.000.000 $)-> 2nd day (10.000.000 $)-> 3rd day(25.000.000 $)
Now, this will lead to a massive price of that coin. Now, let's say that the rich man decides to give up on this coin and he withdraws his money .. with his initial investment he will now obtain even x40 more. But the sad part is that the coin price will drop quick and there are millions of people who invested 1000$, 2000$ or more and their investition will be equal to 0 because of the price which will be almost equal to 0.
An example is the bitcoin .. everybody invested until it reached 20.000$ and then some people started to withdraw money this making the bitcoin value lower .. to like 11.000$. Imagine how sad it is to buy a bitcoin at 20.000$ and then it's value to drop to 11.000$
This is why it's price goes lower or higher, people invest, the bitcoin price is upper, then for the fear of not loosing money, they withdraw it, this leading to a lower value.
And don't think that this money are sent from GOD, nope .. when someone wins, someone lose... it's a system
You can't produce money from nothing !
Bitcoin is not safe anymore. You cannot turn all your incomings into bitcoin. What happens if you are a millionaire, you go on a holiday and when you come back your money are gone because of the value of this coin.
This is a business because people rush to buy a cryptocurrency, exploit it to the maximum then move on to the next one. This is like immigration.
Now, let's see the dark side of the story
Nobody can detect you, nobody knows who you are and where are you from when you transfer 100.000$, especially on dark web. Imagine that now is more simple to command a murder, to pay for your dirty fetish, to buy drugs, weapons and others.
I think we are close to a braking point.