The future of Cryptocurrency: Notes on the market’s verge
Having Bitcoin and Ethereum in my wallet was a nice feeling – when I was observing the stable rate growth. Now the situation has changed drastically. Not only because I can’t see my wealth increasing itself, but mostly because the very idea of crypto-money looks underdeveloped, in strong need of revision and changes.
Some things in the core of all cryptocurrencies are absolutely brilliant. First of all, I mean independence from the classic bank system, it’s like a community-driven layer of the economy. On the other hand, some aspects of cryptocurrency cause rather frustration and losing faith in this new form of money.
photo/ The World Spectrum
Instability
The phenomenon of inflation is absolutely dreadful – I have fiat money (dollars, euros…), but they lose their value with the time flow. Still, people could develop a kind of predictability here, foreseeing tendencies of the financial market.
We can’t tell the same about cryptocurrency. One day it blows up, making you a millionaire, the next day you lose the half of your illusionary wealth. Something must be done with such a situation, or people will leave the crypto-market.
Mining
For someone, making crypto-money from “nothingness” is a dream come true. For me, this is one of the most horrible inventions ever made.
- New numbers in the global amount of a particular cryptocurrency grow with no real control, causing more chaos with the instability situation.
- (a real problem) Miners use electricity to produce nothing. Ok, you pay your bills. But you can’t replenish mineral reserves, real things used for generating electricity and equipment of various power plants. And you can’t heal the environment diseases, enhanced by the work of huge mining farms – have you heard about global warming?
We can’t control mining. Can we allow it to exist? No restriction would do something here, but some adjustments in the crypto-architecture are able to improve the situation.
photo/ The World Spectrum
Impracticality
In the limited lifetime, human beings look for all kind of experience. Keeping cryptocurrency on a virtual wallet might be satisfying for a while, but as a result, it should bring something substantial – healthy food, exciting travels, progressive gadgets, a comfortable house… What the point of having crypto-money, if you can’t spend them as you wish.
It’s like, I have to convert crypto to fiat for pleasant expenses. I lose money on conversions, and I always worry of missing the possible rate growth (instability again).
The world of cryptocurrency is awfully separated from the reality – although some positive steps have been made in a better direction. You might hear about purchasing apartments for Bitcoins. In the gaming industry, it is possible to buy and sell CS:GO skins or Dota 2 items, using BTC, ETH, or through specially created crypto-coins – for instance, on such marketplaces as DMarket with its DMT (DMarket Tokens).
Still, the crypto- and the real worlds are so far away from each other – and that’s not good for the first one.
From all the items in this short list, impracticality looks the most dangerous for me. If the crypto-industry doesn’t find its place in the world of real good and services, it may fade out. Those “real” things can be “virtual” for sure – values of our society are changing and evolving. Still, there should be something more than numbers in my account to feel joy and happiness from having crypto-money. Hopes of potential richness are not hopes on more Bitcoins – people want something else, and if a cryptocurrency can’t give this, it will be forgotten like many other inventions of the human civilization.
What do you think? It would be nice and helpful for everyone to see interesting opinions in the comments below.
Author: Alex Miller
