In every revolution there are high points but most of the time is spent slogging in the trenches with the ever present specter of failure whispering. The bull market for 2017 was a moment in the sun that many early adopters felt would propel bitcoin acceptance world wide. Understandable given the nine years of hard work to get bitcoin to where it is today. At the same time, it was quite a naïve expectation. In reality this was the first significant engagement in what will be a long and drawn out set of battles with the legacy financial system that will have a mix of successes and failures: mostly failures, until such time as the Bitcoin ultimately wins. This is the nature of all revolutions.
During this process we should not be surprised that we lose some of those who were our strongest advocates. Everyone has their limit to how much they can commit to a cause. These limits can be easily reached when a premature expectation of total victory is dashed.
What should our response be when we lose such intrepid compatriots? I can only speak for myself but first we have to realize that their concerns may be legitimate: Bitcoin and the crypto community may fail. The best technology does not always win. That has been the case for the last nine years and is a risk in the forseeable future. If you got into this movement without understanding that, you probably should leave now. For those who have accepted this risk and are willing to soldier on, we should take pause to remind ourselves that the problems being pointed out by Richard Hart and others were present throughout the entire time they were advocating Bitcoin. The question then is why are these are these challenges insurmountable today?
As the price falls back to reality Bitcoin may fade back into obscurity. Not to worry, that is the environment where revolutions do their best work. The slow moving global fiscal crisis that was the impetus for the creation of bitcoin is not going away. The pump and dump of 1000 or more Altcoins will continue to burn the wannabe overnight millionaires. In this morass the predictability of bitcoins decentralized sound money proposition will shine brighter and brighter. Whether bitcoin is $1k, $20k, it’s survival is what matters.
It may be a bit glib to reference Thomas Payne’s summertime soldier and the sunshine patriot but the theme still applies. If you only had dreams of Lambos and bikini clad this is not your revolution. If in Crypto you saw a way to recreate the post war monetary system to one that serves the people over the corporate-political class, welcome to the club: hodl on!
