Positive Blockchain Stories
Everyone loves drama, but has blockchain really helped anyone so far?
How many articles criticizing blockchain have you read this year? How many devastating Reddit confessions have you seen so far? Is blockchain really overrated? We don’t think so. While people ask for drama and the media gives them exactly what they want, technology doesn’t really care much about all that nonsense. The purpose of every technology is to improve the quality of life and that’s why it is only fair to judge it by the results. Positive results, in particular.
Prosperity vs Wealth
Blockchain is often associated with big money and big profits, and some may argue that the decentralized nature of this tech doesn’t go well with all these bitcoin millionaires appearing. The luckiest people of all are probably the early adopters, and there is one person among them who caught our attention.
Jered Kenna started his crypto journey really early and used to be quite successful until 2010 when he lost 800 BTC after his computer was erased. However, that didn’t crush Jered’s spirit and he didn’t turn his back on crypto. Later, his mobile account and email address got hacked and he lost a significant amount of money (millions of dollars in value, he says). Devastated, but not crushed, he managed to overcome the incident and is now a businessman and uses BTC for the majority of his transactions and keeps promoting cryptocurrencies.
Leaving ‘the lucky ones’ aside, have there been any real-world success stories?
There’s no doubt that China knows a thing or two about fast development and hard work. The Chinese government is famous for their experiments in rural areas of the country in order to fight poverty. Haosheng, a small village with just a little more than 60 people, is located next to the Wenchang Satellite Launch Base. The Wenchang City government decided to develop aerospace vegetable cultivation, green farming, cultural tourism, and implement blockchain technologies in order to prove the power of innovations.
Using aerospace technology as Haosheng’s signature line, the government decided to give visitors from all over the world an opportunity to witness the cultivation of agricultural product in aerospace breeding and trying out “aerospace cuisine” themselves. Currently, the village has a “blockchain restaurant” that tracks the entire process from planting fruits and vegetables to serving the table with centrally processed data. The idea behind this is that by using blockchain technology and uniting the farming community and the end buyers under a single blockchain, everyone can monitor improvement and establish a universal payment system that will work fine for all participants.
Of course, the blockchain has played just a small role in Haosheng’s success, and it was only just the beginning. In just one year the village showed an incredible growth in wealth and became a model village for the area. The cost of schooling has finally become acceptable and the people of the village have gradually moved toward being a well-off society.
When Fiat Becomes Useless
Venezuela’s 741% inflation rate is almost unbelievable and their currency — the bolivar — is literally worth nothing. At the current stage of the nationwide downfall, Venezuelans are searching for better alternatives like USD. However, the government has the last word when it comes to exchanges so the citizens are not allowed to buy as much USD as they want, which led to the emergence of the USD black market. Obviously, it failed to play by fair rules, prices went up, and the population turned to bitcoin.
Currently, Venezuelans are depending on crypto as they use it for purchasing Amazon gift cards and later on, ordering food and basic necessities from online retailers in the US who ship them to South America.
People are even using bitcoins to purchase medicine. In the current economic situation, there’s no chance to fight diseases with bolivars.
As one of the local crypto traders said, “Bitcoin is a way of rebelling against the system.”
Venezuela is not the only country who managed to find ‘salvation’ in crypto. When dealing with the consequences of the economic crisis, Cyprus’ and Greek banks closed down for a month, and people started buying bitcoins. The Bitcoin volume in Europe shot up 286% after the Cyprus bank closures, and in Greece in particular, BTC purchases increased by 79%.
Getting Personal
Bitcoin Babe, Michaela Juric, made a confession that bitcoin actually saved her life. In an interview with The Project TV, she admitted that the original purpose of buying her first crypto was not that delightful: “I was extremely depressed and the whole reason for me purchasing that bitcoin was to use it to buy drugs off the darknet market, and the purpose of those drugs was to overdose and commit suicide.” However, she managed to overcome the depression and even made a fortune on trading crypto.
Some achievements might not be so mind-blowing but they all count.
Answering CCN’s question about Bitcoin’s influence on his life, Juan Garavaglia — blockchain entrepreneur — confessed that it actually taught him an important lesson:
“It is a personal question and needs a personal answer. I never saved any money in my life. Savings was like stealing from yourself. With Bitcoins, I do not want to just spend them, I am saving them. I am not thinking how can I spend them, I am thinking how can I save them and get more. It looks like, in my case, it is a way to do savings. I have never done this in my life. I spend money and find ways to produce more. Now I am trying to produce more but to save it. When I had money at a stock exchange and the market went down 2%, I would feel a lot of pain, but now when Bitcoin drops 25% — it is a process. I am still keeping my bitcoins. For me, it changed the way I approach money.”
Conclusion
Here and there we read stories of people who thought they’d lost it all, and then suddenly crypto and blockchain came into their lives as a certain revelation and changed the rules of the game. Sometimes, these stories may sound a little naive (or even fake) but let’s admit it — we all need a positive motivation to start changing the world for the better.
Blockchain offers endless possibilities in all aspects of our life, from fighting with fake drugs to saving one country’s economy. Blockchain charity funds and social projects may be only testing the waters right now and the vast majority of startups are dedicated to making money in the first place but one thing is certain — the technology is definitely here to stay. And when the right people make their fortune, they will eventually start giving it back to society.
Have You Got Your Own Blockchain Story?
Share it with the Lumi team! We’d love to hear some more good news. Get in touch with us on our Telegram public chat or follow our Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit accounts for more inspirational stories from the crypto community.
