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November 25, 2013, 11:21:40 PM |
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Hi everyone, my name's Danny and this is my first post here so I wanted to just write a reasonably quick, stream-of-consciousness blurb on where I believe Bitcoin is at. I'm not going to do anything too complicated here, but I would love to hear any feedback or criticism. I'm a professional writer and look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship with bitcoiners, altcoiners, and anyone who has cool stuff to say with regard to crypto. Also, I'm immediately a fan of this BTC. Cool.
I love explaining to people what Bitcoin is because I'm so passionate about how I believe it's useful and will be extremely valuable in the future — and I don't even mean as a speculative asset, but rather as a tool for society. If I am ever asked to bottom line why Bitcoin as an idea is extremely valuable it is very simply, it lower transaction costs that a cashless society (which all societies partly are) have to pay. Obviously, this is nothing original, but I find avoiding the nuances of how Bitcoin works or what it really is, is more conducive to the Bitcoin argument. Likewise, I don't think explaining HTML, DNS, or any other abstruse internet-related concept would be terribly useful in the pre-internet days.
That said, I believe Bitcoin is in a very similar state as to where the internet was in the early '90s. I remember having internet at home as a kiddo and finding it interesting, but not terribly useful. Similarly, I think Bitcoin for most people is barely at this point. It is interesting (or not to many), and not terribly useful to most people. The good news for people already in the game is that we can speculate on BTC or like currencies and we stand to make a lot of money.
Frankly, I think that BTC will hit a tipping point, but it won't be for another few years, perhaps as many as 10, but once my mom and dad (early 50-year-olds in a small town) can pull BTC out of an ATM and use it to buy something off Amazon, Bitcoin's market cap will be perhaps 100x what it is today, and more importantly, the ship for speculation will have largely sailed, though perhaps BTC (or its replacement) will have an order of magnitude in growth left, depending on how it relates to pre-existing financial systems.
So to circle back, I think Bitcoin at this point is in the late part of its early adopter stage. Its massive value is a testament to the passion and voracity of a relatively small group of people, rather than any kind of true catching on. Buying and exchanging Bitcoin is several layers away from most people's understanding of the internet 2 factor authentication, long strings of numbers - the vast majority of the world just cannot grasp these things, and indeed won't for a long time. This is why BTC is a great bet as a speculative vehicle - it kind of sucks to use right now compared to say, facebook, and yes, I think that is an apt comparison.
ANyway, thanks for reading and I hope I said a valuable thing or two. Your feedback is appreciated.
tl;dr Bitcoin is nowhere near critical mass, despite its massive value.
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