Please click below to listen to the 76th episode of my weekly crypto podcast ‘Two Minute Crypto.’ These are intended to be short, single-topic ramblings on some aspect of the cryptosphere. Consider dropping a like and or a review on iTunes or Podbean if you enjoy the podcast. Comments and critiques welcome.
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Welcome to Two Minute Crypto – this week’s episode highlights some of the ways in which Bitcoin adherents may simply be wasting their time and that of others.
Bitcoin doesn’t need – Dishonest Representation
Like all of mankind’s endeavours – it is subject to failure. For a host of reasons beyond the ability of the very brightest to plan for, BTC may indeed prove a glorious failure.
There are, of course, an array of factors that point to a bright future but promoting BTC as inevitable is simply disingenuous. Bitcoin loses nothing by the simple recognition of the possibility of failure – any reasonably bright individual will be rightly put off by the portrayal of BTC as an inevitability.
Bitcoin doesn’t need – Hyperbolic Hopium Laced Price Predictions
By any reasonable measure, BTC has already succeeded beyond the wildest expectations of its first adherents - at least in terms of its per coin valuation. From literally no market value to roughly 7 thousand dollars, in a span of just over a decade, is a meteoric rise of truly epic proportions.
Indeed, the party may have just begun. Bitcoin has the potential to accrue value in a multitude of areas, as digital gold, as ‘new’ gold, as a hedge against hyperinflationary policies, as a digital store of value for a digital age and so on. It was, and remains, an asymmetric investment opportunity.
Nonetheless, casually throwing out BTC to 10k, 300k, a million or beyond is more likely to repel than attract. Sure, the gullible, the desperate, and the degenerate may be lured by the promise of ‘easy money’ but is that really the audience BTC needs in order to prosper, grow and sustain value over a multi-decade time frame? Ultimately, hyperbolic price predictions, in fact, weaken market sentiment as they are inevitably missed.
Bitcoin Doesn’t Need Claims of an Easy Road Ahead
BTCs journey to global market significance has just begun. At this moment it is the merest blip on the global economic radar. It has faced many challenges and to date, it has over overcome each one to emerge stronger than before. If you possess a sound grasp of BTCs elegant design – challenges are to be welcomed and expected.
The current monetary regime cannot and will not simply step aside. Authoritarian states have no intention of empowering their citizens by embracing a decentralized currency. The struggle to realize a world where BTC matters will be many years in the making and it will be littered with setbacks. Expect them, strive to understand them and judge Bitcoin as it hopefully adjusts to overcome them.
Bitcoin Doesn’t Need Falsely Optimistic Timelines
Folks, this is all going to take decades. At least three more halving’s await before we can reasonably expect BTC to have entrenched itself within the global market system. Throwing out late 2020. Early 2021 or mid-2024 as the points at which BTC will ‘rule them all’ is absurdly optimistic. Were that to come to pass -great but pushing excessively optimist timelines for broader market adoption and relevance does no-one any favours. Zoom out, admit your impatience and limited perspective and, couch BTC within a timeline that doesn’t ignore the many challenges it is going to face over a very long period of time.
Bitcoin – Doesn’t Need Your Allegiance
There are few things more wasteful than religiously trolling other blockchains. Stridently attacking each and every exploration of the potential of crypto is an eminently counter-productive pastime. Clearly, 99% or more of all current blockchain experiments will amount to nothing but BTC in no way requires this outcome in order to prosper. In fact, were a number of other cryptos to succeed as oracles, logistic facilitators, world computers, smart contract platforms, and so on – such success would, in all likelihood, bolster BTC’s own place within the market.
Educate – teach the wider community about BTC – callout dishonesty where you perceive it but to evangelize against all other iterations of blockchain simply robs you of focus and embitters the very people who are natural Bitcoin allies.
Thanks for listening.
