Eight years ago, when I first learned about crypto, the dominant narrative was that Bitcoin would replace traditional finance and be used as a currency for everyday transaction around the world. This narrative was what drew most people including myself into the space at the time.
Back then, the idea of a decentralized currency and the potential of Bitcoin replacing even my local currency was what I was dreaming to see happen in my life time. As a writer, I promoted this narrative aggressively in blog posts and social media threads because I genuinely believe in the vision of peer to peer electronic cash that Satoshi Sakamoto originally outlined in the Bitcoin white paper.
However, over the years, it seems like the narrative has shifted totally to several things for different people. If you ask, most people in crypto today why they are stacking crypto, everyone has their perculiar reasons for what they are doing, and no one hardly talk about the original vision of peer to peer electronic cash anymore.
99% of the people who are in crypto are for wealth accumulation and getting rich quick. Only a few talk about the technology these days, it seems like nobody cares about the actual use cases of crypto anymore, it's now just a medium to make more fiat money.
Going by this observation, I do not see how crypto can ever become a legitimate replacement for traditional finance and be used for everyday transactions. Even now when the American government has announced a Bitcoin national reserve which many other nations are already frontrunning, none of these nation's has the intention of actually using Bitcoin as legal tender in their nations. Their motives are not different from the average crypto investor which is wealth accumulation and making more fiat money in the future.
Someone who buys Bitcoin today do so because he believes that someone else will pay ten times more for it in ten years to come. The one who will buys at that higher price does so because he also believe someone else will pay more for it in the future. So, the buying circle continue indefinitely. But the fun part is that even at a higher price, the message is still the same, “someone will pay more for it in the future” and no one gets to sell Bitcoin.
When you see Bitcoin crashing and rebounding, it doesn't actually mean people are selling and exciting the system, it's the activities of people whose business in crypto is mainly buying at low prices and selling high for fiat profits. Bitcoin or rather the entire crypto space has become more of a speculative asset class rather than a functional currency for everyday use. Crypto is now just a commodity you buy and sell to make profits in fiat. And that's the reason why I personally don't see crypto becoming a mainstream payment system anytime soon. Speculators would not allow it to work.
Now, we see institutional investors and governments getting involved in whatever medium and capacity they want. Do you think these people care about crypto becoming a currency for everyday use without conversation to fiat money? Of course not. The banks and financial institutions were the very reason why crypto was created, but now they are the ones buying it up and controlling larger portion of the total supply of Bitcoin.
There is no way crypto can ever become a functional decentralized currency for everyday use by everyone, and we all know that. Whether we have privacy coins or better technology, the condition remain the same. Crypto is a product to be bought and sold for profits. No matter what anyone says, whether they choose to hold till the day they die, profits making is still the underlying motives. Whether you sell now or in the future, there's no much difference. It's all about profits making. The little difference is just the timing and the size of profits you are willing to take.
So, in the end, everyone in crypto are stacking for the same reason; to make money and accumulate wealth. Little attention is given to the technology and the use cases when crypto is concerned.
That's it. We are all in the spare to make money. Stack them up, hold tight if that's is your choice, or sell them for profits when you think it's right for you. Rinse and repeat. Buy and sell, it's a free market after all. But remember that the ultimate goal is to make profits. So never sell at a loss. That's the bottom line.
