Many people compare the cryptocurrency boom to the dot com boom of the late 1990's. I remember when I a little kid my brother came home from college in 1994 and showed me Yahoo.com on his computer. He was trying to explain it to me but at the time I didn't really understand what the internet was. It was described to me as a place you could search and download audio clips of movies. At the time we didn't have internet video yet, it was only audio files. After my brother showed this, I was hooked at the age of 9. All I wanted from that point forward was a computer. After going through some BS "fake" kid computers, I ended buying my brother's old worthless slow computer off of him. My cell phone today is a billion times more powerful than that computer. I was happy though. I had my own computer that I could dial into the internet with. Back in the 90's everyone used America Online. I was sucked into the AOL chatrooms and the digital age begins.
With this new technology comes a wave of new websites. Everyone and their mother was building a website. This created millions being pumped to build up the internet, but many of these companies didn't do anything and eventually the bubble burst and was redirected to the real estate boom. Many people relate cryptocurrencies to the dot com boom. There are many similarities between them. There are millions of dollars being pumped into cryptocurrency companies, many of which don't really do much. What gives these coins value are people willing to buy and sell them on an open exchange.
So the question remains are cryptocurrencies a bubble and fad that will disappear? I think a lot of these coins will go away, but the blockchain technology is here to stay. I don't think the bubble is going to burst to zero like many people think. I do believe this technology is starting to build up the second version of the internet. An internet where the people benefit from their content. The best part of this online community is that no one controls the money or which coins people use. The people decide without having to directly vote for one or the other. Just buy holding a coin you just voted to keep that coin in circulation. No one can prevent the coin from existing if people are willing to use it. This is the power of the blockchain, people own their value and no one can say otherwise.
The blockchain is a huge threat to almost every industry. Cryptocurrencies have made it easy for the average person to make large amounts of money in a very short amount of time. People are building careers within this space. The big corporations and jumping onboard so they don't miss the boat and become obsolete. I honestly believe most governments will fail and cryptocurrencies is the replacement system being built. It will be an easy switch once the establishment falls apart people will be looking for an alternative. The cryptocurrency space is relatively small at the moment but it is growing every day. It's growing so fast that exchanges had to shut down new signups. Who knows where these prices will go once sign-ups are reinstated. The people give these coins value and the more people involved the more money being invested.
I think some of these coins will go away, but it's clear that the big name crypto coins are not going anywhere. The technology is being advanced on a daily basis and this is still early stage. Crypto isn't extremely intuitive to use today, but it's getting better and once you get the hang of it, it can be easy. I think once people start seeing more examples of cryptocurrencies with use cases it will begin clicking more for people. Steemit is the perfect example of what can be accomplished with blockchain technology. The best thing about Steemit is getting paid without needing advertisements or a product. All I need is myself and my thoughts.
@johnnyyash