I have always been skeptical of crypto, and still am.
But I finally read a definition that makes sense to me.
To paraphrase;
Crypto isn’t a “currency” it is an “asset” to insure against the debasement of government currency.
I still wouldn’t go deep into it, but this does compute with my brain.
That’s how it was explained to me. The problem is today a crapto coin might be worth $10,000 and tomorrow worth $10, it’s not very stable.
That doesn’t resonate with me either, ain’t touching the stuff.
I heard on cnbc that every several years the amount of Bitcoin in circulation is cut in half? There’s a term for it but that alone drives up the price.
So think of crypto as a proof of concept of the blockchain distributed transaction ledger technology (DeFi). I don’t see any value in crypto itself because its not a currency and wont ever be. There is tremendous value in the blockchain networks and you will see real digital assets coming soon. Things like drivers licenses, house deeds, bonds and other securities will be converted to digital assets in the future and access on these networks without risk of tampering or theft.
It is a crypto currency. This was not designed to be an asset and IMO it is not an asset. This concept wasn’t even a thing until runaway inflation and massive government printing of money. People suddenly had the thought that there can only be 21 million coins and cant just continue to be printed forever like fiat can. This is where the idea of it being an asset came from. Back in covid lockdown bitcoin also crashed down to $3,000 per coin.
The whole intention of it was to be a peer to peer banking system. This came out of the 08 banking crisis. It was designed to get away from the central banks and the JP Morgan’s of the world. What changed is big corporations thought they could make a lot of money and they got in a big way and this started driving values up. Now it is locked up in some retirement accounts.
One day there is going to be a spectacular crash. Unlike the stock market, there is no circuit breakers in the system.
I do see a real use for something like this. Mainly on international trade.
That is almost impossible to spend.
I look at crypto as more akin to a collectible rather than currency, a collectible with no intrinsic value itself and worth what someone else values it at any point in time. Exchanging it for cash or another item is not unlike selling a collectible or trading one for another item.
I own none and don’t anticipate ever owning any.
Not a bad analogy @jimtoo
I don’t own any either and probably wont…but we will be using the blockchain networks relatively soon. Governments will eventually move to digital currencies (CBDCs) and I think that will put a lot of downward pressure on the 1000s of artificial “tokens” that have been created.
Places like Walmart or gas stations will never accept it. Currently a credit card takes a second or two to verify. A crypto exchange can take hours. This might actually work for EV charging stations since you are waiting hours anyway.
Kind of like Beanie Babies
Not sure I’d call Beanie Babies collectibles, although they were for a few minutes.
I was thinking more like tulips
More like NFTs.
Where? I’ve never waited a second for a charging station. Waited maybe 20-25 minutes for the charge to take place.