So today, Hive set a new all-time low.

Mwanwhile, in the broader crypto world, BitMex and BitMart both announced that they will be shutting down, in the coming months.

As I look out across the rather wrecked Cryptosphere landscape, I feel sad to admit that it looks nothing like the hopeful and somewhat idealistic proposition it was when I first got involved in this crazy stuff, some 12 years ago.

In an exchange I had on an investing forum recently someone made the very astute observation that "Crypto and blockchain may have the potential to solve many problems, but cannot solve fundamental human nature!"

They were alluding to the fact that if there's a way to exploit a technology — or an idea — for financial gain, humans will do that... regardless of the irreparable damage it may do to the very idea they are exploiting.

Consequently, in the end you wind up with something that bears little relation to what you started out with... if you end up with anything, at all.

There was a time when I had hoped that crypto would help me globalize my business by providing an easily accessible global and borderless payment system for a business I had that was already making money, as a business.

Needless to say, that never came to pass.

Speaking purely as a metaphor, instead of using crypto tokens to operate a viable business and make money, the crypto tokens — themselves — became what people tried to make money with. Call me naive, but I don't believe that was the original intention.

Of course, anything that runs largely on hype — with very little substance to back it up — soon enough ends up running out of momentum, when more and more people realize that they are either looking at a scam, or a house of cards.

Just to make something very clear here: I am not blaming crypto here, I am blaming human greed.

Let's face it, even the President of the United States got involved in the crypto grift...

Because it is an often-used parable, let us remember "Tulip Bulb Mania," for a moment.

Specifically, let us remember that before tulip bulbs allegedly became subject to an unsustainable speculative bubble, tulips were still amazingly beautiful flowers and there was definitely a naturally organic and sustainable niche market for them. And they remained beautiful flowers after the crash — proof that people didn't care about flowers, only about money.

The show didn't fall apart because there was anything wrong with tulip bulbs, it only fell apart because there was something wrong with a certain segment of humans who tend to lay waste to virtually any opportunity they can exploit... and "damn the consequences!"

We need look no further than the infamous "Dot Com Bubble" of the late 1990s... but we can also derive from that that the Internet still lives on, and people still build web sites.

On a smaller scale, the effect can also be be seen in the collectible coin market (Numismatic, not bullion) and the rare collectible postage stamp market, during the past 6-7 decades. Someone decides a "quick buck" can be made, there's a crazy runup in the corresponding markets followed by a massive crash when the world realizes that the proverbial emperor is not wearing any clothes.

As Warren Buffett famously observed: "When the tide goes out, you discover who's been swimming naked!"

Some of us are here for the long haul, and can only hope the grifters get it out of their system, soon.

Thanks for coming to visit!

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