And Horrible For Investors 3-18-18
source: https://pixabay.com/en/girl-topper-playing-cards-luck-1339685/
I was an outlier on the crypto community for a long time. I saw value in it, but I also thought the fiat valuations were ridiculous. I couldn't understand how a digital trustless ledger without backed assets could be worth so much. Then the All Time Highs Set In, just after I decided to put a small amount into a specific Alt Coin a friend of mine was adamant (still is) about: Bitshares (BTS). I immediately saw unrealized gains (they've since turned to losses) that were incredible.
That was my first and primary position, and it's small money, but that small stake made me incredibly interested in this space. I was confident it was a bubble. But bubbles create winners and losers, and I realized I could potentially win a lot by risking a little. That's what I've done, and I've put in a little more at some of the troughs, but here we are--watching the gradual decline of the whole market in unison.
What's Going On Here? Who Can Know For Sure? But What I Expect We'll See Is A Narrowing Of The Field.
Digital Assets with Intrinsic Value will survive. The Question Is Price Point. The Market Simply needs to stabilize to survive. Asset values are high enough to successfully operate, except many people feel like they're taking losses, and there's obviously a lot of lost optimism. There's panic. People may continue to drive the price down, and surely many alt coins will continue to plummet into worthlessness. That's A Good Thing.
I'll repeat. Overall, It's a Good Thing if many of these tokens disappear altogether. There are far too many. This is turning into a stock market, which is forcing regulators to get involved. If the field narrows to a select number of digital assets that operate successfully on their own merits in their own ecosystems (even if involved with others), then those assets will have value and survive. Hopefully their monetary values increase in time, rewarding all the early adopting investors, but I think the community needs to understand that it'll take time for the successful enterprises to rebound to their All Time Highs, and in order for them to do that, much of the field will have to fail. But in the end that will provide a stable industry, set of standards, and the public confidence needed to keep these platforms afloat, operating and successful.
I believe there are several, if not dozens of cryptos that will ultimately find a relatively stable value that will prevail against FUD, panic, and Government Interference. Some will do it through compliance (I think most will try to achieve regulatory compliance), and I think some will choose to operate on the dark net, so to speak, because of regulation. I imagine now since the tech exists to manage anonymity, there will certainly be a market for it. So, too, will Bank Sponsored (or regulated) Digital Assets. Most of the field finding themselves in between those extremes, Assets must have viable use cases in the present and near term.