Cryptocurrency: A fork in the road
Bitcoin, Etheruem, Avalon, and more are on a path approaching a fork. No, not that kind of fork. One that determines it’s fate. The worlds fate. Can we, the people, have power over our money like we do over our speech and freedom? Or will we forever be ruled over by our government’s control of money.
This may sound dramatic, but this ideology has very real impacts on our lives. Remember The financial crisis? Government regulation and creation of financial vehicles that run our country, and in some respects the world economy. Cryptocurrency is offered as a gateway to financial freedom for all humans, not just citizens of one country, to collectively decide their financial fate. However the road to utopia is often paved in failure. Remember Mt. Gox? Cryptocurrency has an ball and chain that continues to weigh down it’s ability to succeed and threatens it’s existence. Put simply, it does not exist in a vacuum. The Silk Road taught us that any interaction, no matter how “anonymous” in nature, that is tied to the existing system will be targeted and attacked. Let’s be real, those in power will forever try to maintain that power. They will do anything to take down anything that threatens them. It sounds dramatic and a little over the top, but it exists throughout every industry and establishment because it is core to human nature.
So the cryptocurrency community is approaching a fork in their path. Do they work to coexist with the established industries and entities or do they fight harder for pure freedom? This conundrum has created such a heated debate that Bitcoin itself has literally forked into separate ideologies. It’s amusing to think of the age old question “when you reach a fork in the road with path do you take”? Perhaps the answer is “both”.
An optimists path
It is my true belief that even arriving to this question about cryptocurrencies future is a huge accomplishment for its legitimacy and longevity. Who would have thought this would be the biggest hill to climb for Bitcoin back nearly a decade ago. On one side of the path we can optimistically look at a future where the governments throughout the world are taken out of the equation. Image a farm that accepts Bitcoins for it’s crops. It then uses Bitcoin to pay their employees and purchase raw materials and equipment that go into growing their crops. The employees are able to spend their Bitcoin wages to get products from a local maker, and energy from a local renewable power plant. All of a sudden you can freely exchange with your local communities for all of your needs, all while maintaining the power to exchange freely within the global market. This is the cypherpunk future that many strive for, but one that will be fiercely fought against. You will hear many of grievances that these technologies empower terrorists and drug lords. As if those did not exist prior to 2009.
A realists path
What if we decide not to fight the system in a head on battle, and instead use the silicon valley approach to innovation. Work within the legal and regulatory frameworks while disrupting industries and empower people like never before. There are murmurs of a new revolution coming that is somewhat of successor to the internet revolution. Companies and industries built on top of the blockchain will forever change how we interact with existing industries and establishments. It may even push us to rethink the exchange of currency and value creation. Bitcoin doesn’t have to be just about processing a transaction in anonymity, the technology it is built on and it’s features are valuable within an existing system. For one cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are divisible to a high degree. You can spend 0.0000001 Bitcoin the same way you spend 1,000,000 Bitcoin. The fact that it is digital frees it from the constraints of the real world of printing money and even counter-fitting. The blockchain in many ways is superior to our current accounting system for money. All transactions are public so you cannot have a fake Bitcoin.
An ongoing dialog
Why did I mainly talk about Bitcoin? Bitcoin is by far the most mainstream cryptocurrency and has a long history that people identify with. However these ideas and struggles are attached to all cryptocurrencies.
Who controls cryptocurrency? No one and everyone really. The beauty of this system is that new technologies needs users and backers to succeed. The network effect being a key to success means these new ideas rely on people and their vetting to grow.
What about examples? Avalon is a project I am working on that takes the realist approach to group purchasing and gives you the best qualities from existing companies selling goods, and the privacy of cryptocurrency.
What about risk? This is definitely a sticking point and most likely an article coming in the future. Cryptocurrency is fundamentally similar to a digital cash in the sense that it can be destroyed and stolen with no way to trace or retrieve that specific money. There have been many security issues in the growing pains of cryptocurrency, but as with the growing internet age these are pains that are necessary for future resistance to fragility.
