If we want to grow as humans, we need to acknowledge our innate preference for safety over progress. Ever since we evolved on the plains of Africa, we have always valued our lives more than the possibility of improving them, and this evolutionary trait remains within us to this day.
As time goes on, we become comfortable with the people in our lives, our surrounding environment, and our daily routines. Our natural inclination is to reject anything that comes along with the potential to disrupt our familiar way of life, whether it be a new person, idea, or technology.
After all, allowing a new person or technology into our lives presents risks. We could end up being disappointed, or we may have to deal with problems that we have never encountered before, and that would make us feel uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, we cannot make progress without feeling discomfort.
What does cryptocurrency mean for society and our economies if we can now interact with one other directly, without the need for an intermediary? What happens to the banks and other institutions that we have depended on for millennia to protect us?
The uncomfortable truth is that cryptocurrency is going to change the way we do business, transfer ownership, and govern ourselves. Not to worry though, because crypto wasn't the first technology to threaten our way of life and eventually become integrated into society.
Technology Always Wins
As someone who is alive today, it's hard to imagine a society without electricity or gas-powered vehicles. But there was a time when we lit our homes with candles and got around by horse and buggy.
Because they were noisy and dirty, the population was skeptical of the car engine at first. However, the technology improved through multiple iterations until the people preferred cars over traditional modes of transportation.
There are examples of more modern technology that was initially dismissed by the majority, but eventually adopted by society.
Take social networks like Twitter and YouTube, for example. At first, the majority was ridiculing these networks, thinking they'd only be used to share cat videos and breakfast photos.
Now we have major political and business leaders using these platforms to broadcast their thoughts and opinions directly to the people, no longer relying on established (and often biased) newspapers, radio stations and television channels to relay their messages.
When these social networks first launched back in 2006 we either could not, or did not want to acknowledge how disruptive they would be on society. But regardless of our fear, ignorance, and denial, the technology eventually changed the world, and all our lives along with it.
Crypto's Emotional Component
Depending on the threat level, some technology is adopted by the population much faster than others. Take the smartphone, for example. We didn't have the iPhone until 2007, and by now pretty much everyone in the world has one of these handheld computers.
Money, on the other hand, is something us humans feel very emotional about, and cryptocurrency is a threat to our existing model of money. Unless you're a teenager in the third world, you've probably used cash or held a bank account since you were a kid.
So even though Bitcoin was invented just two years after the iPhone, it has experienced far less adoption by the general population.
Instead of seeing cryptocurrency for what it is (an entirely new form of money that replaces fiat currencies) we wonder how we can trade it to improve our position in the traditional system. Unfortunately, the old system is unsustainable and headed for collapse.
Like prior inventions, cryptocurrency will eventually be integrated into
society, it's just a matter of time. That said, in order for cryptocurrency to reach its true potential, the people will need to let go of their attachment to the old financial system, and embrace the new one.
Until next time...
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Resources
Horse transportation [1]
Trump Tweeting [2]
Fear of Bitcoin [3]