Why Bitcoin is The Kim Kardashian of Crypto
Many blockchain networks today claim to be fast, with low gas fees and a token that gives almost constant growth to investors, but no one has done what Bitcoin did. Literally invented blockchain, and opened this innovation for all to improve data transfers and security pertaining to money, identity, voting, and more. However, in my personal opinion, this crypto giant shouldn’t be as prevalent in the space as it is now.
When I say that Bitcoin is the Kim Kardashian of crypto, it may sound quite confusing and a kind of insult — to Bitcoin. What I mean by this statement is that BTC had its run of being famous as the first, but it is literally just a store of value. That’s it. I couldn’t count the vast amount of tokens that do the same thing, except better because of the introduction of smart contracts, NFT’s, Proof-of-Stake protocols, as well as more efficient and cheaper blockchain networks. So now, it’s only useful because it’s famous. Many people are aware of Bitcoin’s existence and there is a use case(technically, but not enough for me to like it). And this shows that Bitcoin is like the celebrity in that they are both, at this point at least, only famous for being famous, and aren’t really doing anything.
Bitcoin is the king, but like all kings throughout history, it must step down and let the new generation of innovation blaze trails. The problem here is, it wont. Bitcoin will not step down and will continue to rise. Mass adoption is just beginning, and if people unfamiliar with the space develop emotional ties to the few million satoshis then it will only perpetuate Bitcoins prominence. This happening is not good for investors because the whole market right now is coupled to Bitcoin, with the majority of cryptocurrencies ebbing and flowing together. If Bitcoin loses it’s significance, then there wont be any reason for it’s existence. And personally, I would love to know a project I have faith in will succeed because of its own achievement, and not live in Bitcoin’s shadow.
Bitcoin prominence has increased exponentially every year along with it’s price, and in my opinion, I don’t see this green trend going anywhere. However, Bitcoin, as well the whole market, did have numerous hiccups that cut nearly every cryptocurrency’s price in half. First, Elon Musk said he would no longer accept Bitcoin for a Tesla, as well as The Southern United States’ oil pipeline being hacked, and the rightful owners had to pay a large amount of Bitcoin. The paid tokens were partly recovered by the FBI, about 2.3 million dollars. You might think this is good, but it wont be good for the market, because the government being able to reach bitcoin tokens defeats the purpose of decentralization. This whole situation has caused a sense of a lack of security in the minds of bitcoin hodlers, thus causing the cryptocurrency iteration of a bank run. and to beat the already black-and-blue market even more, China shut down BTC mining facilities in the last safe haven town in China to mine crypto. Recently, however, the price of Bitcoin has recovered slightly, due to the huge news of El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. this means that every store in the country has to accept Bitcoin as payment. In other good news, Elon Musk came out and said that he would take BTC for a Tesla under the condition that Bitcoin miners use 50% cleaner energy. I think this is a reasonable request, although it may take longer than we all think.
