What stage of adoption is Crypto currently at?
Discussion
I think we are still at the stage where 25% of the internet was Douglas Adams fan sites and no-one had figured out how to do anything (legally) useful with it yet. Are there any implementations of bitcoin as a payment method that aren't either marketing gimmicks or money laundering?
Note that this year's North American bitcoin conference didn't accept bitcoin
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/01/12/bitcoi...
Note that this year's North American bitcoin conference didn't accept bitcoin
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/01/12/bitcoi...
We're still at the innovator stage. Speculation does not count as adoption. At the base level, you need to be transacting using your own private keys to have adopted crypto. Most people who think they're on the adoption curve are just parking coins at exchanges in order to speculate. That's like watching a TV show about the internet & thinking you're on the net adoption curve.
The critical thing with crypto (as I see it, and I might be totally missing something) is whether governments, particularly western ones, will let it live without control of it. If they decide to 'kill' it, then it'll only be useful on the dark web and for illegal purposes. It won't become mainstream unless the govts let it. And why would they when it totally undermines their own national fiat currencies? It's obvious that they are very threatened by it, and most of them don't even understand it.
I see three possible outcomes, in order of likelihood:
Govt's adopt it and take control of it, defeating it's purpose to a great extent.
They manage to outlaw/kill it, make it useless (which it pretty much is at present, other than an speculatory investment)
Some kind of uprising, probably ultimately leading to anarchy.
Cryptocurrency is different to most of what the internet has given us so far - the dotcom bubble, porn, online shopping, banking, streaming etc. Crypto directly threatens to destabilise government control. Interesting times ahead. The value of crypto is going to depend totally on how the govts play it.
I see three possible outcomes, in order of likelihood:
Govt's adopt it and take control of it, defeating it's purpose to a great extent.
They manage to outlaw/kill it, make it useless (which it pretty much is at present, other than an speculatory investment)
Some kind of uprising, probably ultimately leading to anarchy.
Cryptocurrency is different to most of what the internet has given us so far - the dotcom bubble, porn, online shopping, banking, streaming etc. Crypto directly threatens to destabilise government control. Interesting times ahead. The value of crypto is going to depend totally on how the govts play it.
M511 said:
There's a narrative going on in the media, to only report the negative outcomes and I feel "they" (whoever "they") don't want it to succeed. The Korean news is a good example of this. NBC et al. just reported speculation, but nothing gets printed about it when Korea legalise crypto trading.
I think the uprising has already happened with the inception of bitcoin (if you read the original whitepaper).
If we all stop using fiat and switch to crypto then governments will be powerless.
But for that to work everyone would have to accept crypto and that is never going to happen. How are you going to buy a house, how would you get a mortgage in crypto?I think the uprising has already happened with the inception of bitcoin (if you read the original whitepaper).
If we all stop using fiat and switch to crypto then governments will be powerless.
Also we would need to get rid of fiat as well, all the time crypto is valued against fiat nobody is going to want to get paid in Crypto as it is way too volatile. a mere 6 weeks ago BTC was nearly £15000, today it is £7700. Not sure anybody is going to be too happy when the BTC they got paid last month is worth half in fiat.
Pipe dream, the banks and governments are going to stamp down hard on this as there is too much tax avoidance and laundering of money.
Yes 0.01% of the population would be prepared to swap to crypto, but the majority of people have zero interest in it.
M511 said:
If we all stop using fiat and switch to crypto then governments will be powerless.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, my mum loves going to her local market to meet people, have a gossip and buy food using that old-fashioned stuff called cash. She, and millions like her, won't be switching to imaginary electronic money which as far as she is concerned doesn't really exist. Bradgate said:
M511 said:
If we all stop using fiat and switch to crypto then governments will be powerless.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, my mum loves going to her local market to meet people, have a gossip and buy food using that old-fashioned stuff called cash. She, and millions like her, won't be switching to imaginary electronic money which as far as she is concerned doesn't really exist. https://blockchain.info/charts/cost-per-transactio...
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