One on coindesk, and 1 on steemit, allow me to share both, as they are both highly deserving of a read.
1 on here courtesy of @johnvibes
2 The coindesk article here.
I then had the pleasure of meeting up with a group of people for lunch, and with them being a little on the quiet side today, I started chatting about cryptos and their thoughts. This group was mixed in age, from early 20's to late 60 years old.
Before I knew it 3 hours had gone by, and the conversation was as intense about cryptos as when I first brought up the subject.
Now 1 of the main objections that I kept hearing was regarding exchanges being hacked and losing peoples coins (keys). I had taken with me anyway, as I do, my nano s ledger wallet, and hooked it up to a laptop to show how easy it was to keep the keys on your own device. More than a few people were amazed that this was possible, and that there was no fees, as I am the bank manager and owner of the wallet.
It seems even in this day and age there is still not enough people getting information with regards to how easy it is to keep your coins (keys) safe.
Another thing that was highlighted was the supposed heavy losses on bitcoin recently, though I in turn pointed out that 1 bitcoin, yes just a single bitcoin, is worth over $6000 US. Also that then had the conversation heading along the lines of why? And my answer to that was around 20 minutes long asking the same question about Fiat, why do you think Fiat has value when it is only paper? This debate went on for another 40 minutes and when concluded a consensus of opinion was that Bitcoin or cryptos had every reason to have a value, and 1 higher than Fiat, as there is no fee to keep hold of it in your own wallet.
Now this part of the debate had the most time spent on it, especially for the older crowd, as they had no idea how to spend cryptos at a shop, so it was here my friends laptop came in handy again, as I surfed the inter-web for Plastic cards you could load up and spend as though it was Fiat.
I think by the end of the conversation, we had a full on 30 people interested in adopting Cryptos, a Nano s, and a card, win - win - win. (We may also have quite a few of them joining up on here.)
A large part of why I enjoyed the johnvibe article is the Ukraine is only 70 km's from me or 45 minutes driving (25 on a motorbike.) And that article describes how Ukrainians are escaping the clutches of government via BTC and cryptos full stop, even though the corrupt government is trying to stop people using it.
Also the coindesk article shows how ordinary Turkish people are also jumping onboard fast. (have a taster below.)
These days you don't even need to study the past. The 24-hour news cycle gives us a window on economic disaster as it unfolds. We're seeing in real time every stage of financial collapse on a national scale.
Look to Venezuela to see a society in the last throes of a financial meltdown, its people starving while its leaders continue to thrive, inflation hitting numbers that seem made up.
The International Monetary Fund expects that Venezuela's year-end annual inflation rate will approach 13,000 percent. That's astonishing when you consider that 4 or 5 percent makes news in other parts of the world. We've all heard about post World War I Germany and people using bags of money to buy bread. Here we are, a century later, and people are still subject to the capriciousness of the powerful.
Bitcoin could have changed things for the Venezuelans if they'd had an inkling of what was to come – and they should have – and thought to buy bitcoin or some other currency not tied to the bolivar.
Look to Turkey to see the early stages of a financial meltdown. The country is battling rising government debt, double-digit inflation and a currency whose value has plummeted. Turkish citizens are frantically unloading their lira to hang onto whatever value they can.
Many are turning to foreign currencies and many to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
According to a survey of 15,000 people by Statistica, roughly one in five Turks owns cryptocurrency, the greatest rate of adoption of any of the countries surveyed. Bitcoin is already changing things for the Turks.
We all need to spend many more days like I had today, with inquisitive people, open minded, that just need the "know how" to join in. Corporate news will only scare people with horror stories of how people lose money on cryptos, when the truth is different as we all know. It is up to us dear reader to spread the good word. To share the information, with the rest of the world.
I found not one user of cryptos in this group today, I left with 30 interested in joining in. It was and is as easy as that!
Verdict = Spread the good word good people.
Image pixabay.
