Has Crypto Lost Its Way?

[GrantTheGiant50]

Hey everyone! Just wanted to hear your thoughts on this glaring question.

Remember when crypto wasn't just about chasing new all-time highs, the latest NFT craze, or meme coins? Back then, it was about decentralization, financial freedom, and putting power back in the hands of the people. The vision was bold—a system immune to censorship, government control, and the failures of fiat currency. But now, it feels like that original vision is getting lost in the noise of speculation and hype. Have we strayed too far from what crypto was meant to be?

In the rush for quick profits, many are forgetting the true potential of blockchain technology.

I believe to get a good sense of where we are headed, transaction volume offers a real measure of utility, market fit, and adoption. When you look at the top five cryptocurrencies by transaction volume, three out of five are centralized stablecoins. Their utility far outstrips that of Bitcoin, but at what cost? These stablecoins are centralized, making them highly prone to surveillance and seizure. But there’s an even bigger issue: these companies hold treasury securities as reserves, making them significant contributors to the fiat system. They’re the 18th largest holder of U.S. debt—on par with entire nations. This goes against everything crypto originally stood for; these stablecoins are essentially FIAT in crypto form, the very thing Bitcoin was meant to disrupt.

And don’t even get me started on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

So, here’s the big question: If people are so eager to adopt centralized stablecoins, what’s the point of crypto? Why not just stick with fiat and the traditional financial system? Has crypto really lost its way?

Bitcoin and blockchain started with a mission to upend the traditional financial system, offering a form of money free from manipulation and censorship. Maybe it’s time to revisit the core principles that made crypto revolutionary. Rather than chasing the latest speculative trend, we should be looking at models that realign with the original vision of crypto—individual liberty, decentralization, financial sovereignty, and resistance to censorship.

To date, The Classical Gold Standard remains the closest thing we as a civilization had in terms of a sound monetary framework. It was a system that brought stability, predictability, and a tangible anchor for currencies. However, due to the same pressures that continue to undermine Bitcoin and the broader crypto space, the gold standard was eventually abandoned. We cannot let history repeat itself.

This is where frameworks like ShiftCTRL come in, which, by modeling after the classical gold standard and using Bitcoin as a reserve, provide a stable and decentralized alternative to the flawed fiat system. Could this be the way to realign crypto with its original purpose?

What do you think? Are we ready to steer the crypto ship back on course and focus on long-term stability and freedom? Would love to hear your thoughts about this!

[Die_empty]

What do you think? Are we ready to steer the crypto ship back on course and focus on long-term stability and freedom? Would love to hear your thoughts about this!

People are free to invest in any coin they want. You cannot stop anybody from buying a stablecoin or other shitcoins. There will always be hype which will attract people to invest in pump-and-dump projects. Everybody has their preference. But in the end, Bitcoin is king.

Bitcoin has not lost its decentralization and freedom features. It is still the same coin that is immune to censorship and government control, it has not changed. Bitcoin was not created to replace fiat but to serve as an alternative and it is doing that perfectly. I think you should reduce the attention you are giving to shitcoins.

I see that you are advertising a project. The only project I might be interested in is a type that promotes self-custody, privacy and Bitcoin adoption. If you intend to advertise in the forum, you can go to the service section and start a thread that explains your service.

[Yucky]

Bitcoin and blockchain started with a mission to upend the traditional financial system, offering a form of money free from manipulation and censorship. Maybe it’s time to revisit the core principles that made crypto revolutionary. Rather than chasing the latest speculative trend, we should be looking at models that realign with the original vision of crypto—individual liberty, decentralization, financial sovereignty, and resistance to censorship.

the mission has not changed at all, it's just that people look at the decentralized nature of Bitcoin as the primary characteristics of Bitcoin and still wants to take advantage of the gains in it volatility. At the start, the concept of financial soverinty and resistance to sensorship was the predominant concept because people never saw that other than that, Bitcoin could get to this value we've seen it attained. it is right to say that the potential of Bitcoin and the projection on what it future potential will be is a distraction that's gradually shifting us away from what Bitcoin core mission was at the start which has led to some regulations that's creating a mix of the system being decentralized with a touch of it being centralized.

Even though you're trying to relate your shift control project to aiding Bitcoin attain it primary vision, it's not different from what most other project that are in existence are trying to achieve, relying on the strength of Bitcoin to model something that's close to it or that promises to work hand in hand with Bitcoin. The crypto space is broad and is opened to projects and new cryptocurrency but Bitcoin doesn't need another feature or project to help validate its decentralized system.

[betswift]

What do you think? Are we ready to steer the crypto ship back on course and focus on long-term stability and freedom? Would love to hear your thoughts about this!

People are free to invest in any coin they want. You cannot stop anybody from buying a stablecoin or other shitcoins. There will always be hype which will attract people to invest in pump-and-dump projects. Everybody has their preference. But in the end, Bitcoin is king.

Bitcoin has not lost its decentralization and freedom features. It is still the same coin that is immune to censorship and government control, it has not changed. Bitcoin was not created to replace fiat but to serve as an alternative and it is doing that perfectly. I think you should reduce the attention you are giving to shitcoins.

I see that you are advertising a project. The only project I might be interested in is a type that promotes self-custody, privacy and Bitcoin adoption. If you intend to advertise in the forum, you can go to the service section and start a thread that explains your service.

Yep, details should go in the services, and I fully agree with you, it's everybody's choice and the hype is always around projects with so many risks you will lose count of them It's natural for people to follow it, not something that is stable and reliable, because it's different from the trends, so to speak.

[AbuBhakar]

Blame it to meme coins! They are the ponzi/hyip on crypto right now by offering high risk tokens that has high volatility. The majority of crypto traders prefer to seek quick profit instead of decentralization since this is the way other users promote crypto to their friends and colleagues.

The value of crypto is already tainted by the meme coins and other shit tokens that doesn’t have real utility. The only way to bring back glory days of crypto is to boycott shit projects and focus only on top crypto projects that provide real innovation in crypto space.

[Coyster]

Remember when crypto wasn't just about chasing new all-time highs, the latest NFT craze, or meme coins? Back then, it was about decentralization, financial freedom, and putting power back in the hands of the people. The vision was bold—a system immune to censorship, government control, and the failures of fiat currency.

This sounds like just bitcoin, most of what you mentioned here is why bitcoin was created and i don't think any altcoin was created for this same purpose. Bitcoin is decentralized, immune to censorship and government control and is an alternative to fiat currencies, nothing has changed about that, but most altcoins have always been about quick profits, that's why people buy and sell them as fast as they can make profits. AFAIK, bitcoin hasn't lost its way and altcoins have always been this way, right from the days of ICO's up until now.

[JeffBrad12]

stablecoin serve its purpose despite all the point you mentioned, as much as you don't like it, people really favour something that could keep volatility off their wealth at some point after they are done with their investment.

you shouldn't worry so much about stablecoin having big market cap because undeniably stablecoin being used everywhere as a pair trading of course it will dominate in term of market cap but the market cap itself coming from the reserve backed by various things such as fiat, gold and so on.

the fact that people still invest heavily in a decentralized coin such as BTC and so on means there's no problem at all and crypto hasn't lost its way, things could coexist.

[Wexnident]

~

Because the vast majority of investors don't really understand nor should they actually understand. They're investors, they're all in it for the possibility of profit. I don't particularly see any reason why they'd deny NFTs, gamefi, and whatnot crypto craze when there are a lot of dumb people out there giving them money for those kinds of projects lol.

And I don't think you need to mind other coins in the first place. As long as Bitcoin itself is untouched, then I don't think there's any problem. Let other sdo whatever the hell they want lol.

[Coyster]

stablecoin serve its purpose despite all the point you mentioned, as much as you don't like it, people really favour something that could keep volatility off their wealth at some point after they are done with their investment.

Stablecoins are important, particularly for traders, it is also good for helping crypto users avoid the volatility of the crypto industry. That being said, i would not advise one to hodl stablecoins for the long term, if the issuers go insolvent, then all those hodling that stablecoin would lose their money, stablecoin issuers claim that all coins are backed 1:1, but we know that is unlikely. So whilst people think there is no risk in stablecoins because they are stable, it is not true.

[o48o]

-cut-
What do you think? Are we ready to steer the crypto ship back on course and focus on long-term stability and freedom? Would love to hear your thoughts about this!

Well, cryptocurrencies gave freedom to people and they chose the current system, wasn't that freedom working then? Or are those people only free if they act like what's your vision about the correct idea?

Imho if the pegged stablecoins would have existed from the start, people would have used them. So crypto hasn't really "lost it's way", it's just constantly developing to meet the needs of the users. And now those users are going to be governments and banks as well, so things are changing to meet their needs as well.

[Adbitco]

You and I knows that people interest in cryptocurrency especially bitcoin at large is profits making and no one is ready to think about what project usecase or not. The fact is, investment or trading are having same vision since we had seen bitcoin to be a very important part of the digital currency and with focused on how it's create new ATH makes it charming to people not to really focused on the utilization as digital payment system due to its benefits. We can't still dispute the facts that people are not using it for its true purpose and of course bitcoin is still generally being used for transaction and payment purpose it depends on your point of interest as when venturing into it.

[betswift]

Crypto hasn't lost its way, people are looking to get rich quickly. New coins and memecoins have polluted the crypto market, but Bitcoin and other market-capitalized tokens have held their value. Also, with the legalization of crypto in some countries, only Bitcoin is used as a payment method, not memecoins.

It's just that, because crypto became more accessible (sorta), it became a bigger place to speculate about the buck to be made. Thus, we have the trend we are currently having, with old coins still there in the corner of newbies' attention

[FortuneFollower]

-cut-
What do you think? Are we ready to steer the crypto ship back on course and focus on long-term stability and freedom? Would love to hear your thoughts about this!

Well, cryptocurrencies gave freedom to people and they chose the current system, wasn't that freedom working then? Or are those people only free if they act like what's your vision about the correct idea?

Imho if the pegged stablecoins would have existed from the start, people would have used them. So crypto hasn't really "lost it's way", it's just constantly developing to meet the needs of the users. And now those users are going to be governments and banks as well, so things are changing to meet their needs as well.

Crypto is evolving rapidly, so, yeah, bigger whales and institutions are here to have a part of the pie for themselves as well.

[cute nmp]

Not at all we are just going true new revolutions .We may not like it now or adapt easily but things will soon shape up we are definently going forward with all these new developments

[smelody]

Not at all we are just going true new revolutions .We may not like it now or adapt easily but things will soon shape up we are definently going forward with all these new developments

Definitely so. The crypto revolution that continues to build the bridge to the next world system.

[el kaka22]

While I do agree that there are a lot of people who hype useless boring shitty crazy stuff, there are a lot of us who still spend, earn, trade and invest into bitcoin like the old days, that was what people did 15 years ago give or take, and that's what we are doing right now as well.

I do not think that we need anything different, we should consider that as something quite normal without much trouble. This is why we need to consider the fact that we will end up with a good profit if we keep going the way we used to, and not look at these crazy people because they are really just purely crazy and they are not doing anything sane, if you just want to complain about them, you will miss the billions that are spent everyday about all these things, it will not be a good thing and we should consider that it will be a miss. I ignore all those crazy people, they can hype about any new buzzword they want, it is not my thing and I keep focusing on getting more bitcoins.

[KingsDen]

While I do agree that there are a lot of people who hype useless boring shitty crazy stuff, there are a lot of us who still spend, earn, trade and invest into bitcoin like the old days, that was what people did 15 years ago give or take, and that's what we are doing right now as well.

I do not think that we need anything different, we should consider that as something quite normal without much trouble. This is why we need to consider the fact that we will end up with a good profit if we keep going the way we used to, and not look at these crazy people because they are really just purely crazy and they are not doing anything sane, if you just want to complain about them, you will miss the billions that are spent everyday about all these things, it will not be a good thing and we should consider that it will be a miss. I ignore all those crazy people, they can hype about any new buzzword they want, it is not my thing and I keep focusing on getting more bitcoins.

Of a truth there are still die hard Bitcoiners, but they are not much compared to the great number that patronizes shit coins and meme coins om daily. I once saw myself in a gathering where they only talk about bitcoin and nothing more. Those guys believe that bitcoin will worth $1M someday. The way they talk about bitcoin will make you see yourself as a rich man if you manage to own 0.1 BTC. They believe in bitcoin and trust bitcoin but they aren't in this forum. They don't want to visit so. They said you don't need anyone's validation or opinion to own BTC.

[nelson4lov]

Crypto used to be about decentralization and financial freedom until web3 Founders launch dozens of projects abd VCs who invested in such projects dumped and left. Rinse and repeat. This continued for a long time till everyone got tired and choose to settle for NFTs or better still memecoins because over there, there are no promises whatsoever. It's just vibes and whatever can pump the hardest with no strings attached.

[KingsDen]

Crypto used to be about decentralization and financial freedom until web3 Founders launch dozens of projects abd VCs who invested in such projects dumped and left. Rinse and repeat. This continued for a long time till everyone got tired and choose to settle for NFTs or better still memecoins because over there, there are no promises whatsoever. It's just vibes and whatever can pump the hardest with no strings attached.

With all you have said, are you suggesting that cryptocurrency nowadays is advanced gambling? Because that is the scenario you just described above. This is captured when you said people choose NFT and memecoins because over there there's no promise of anything. Will this continue this way or it will changed that people will later realise the unmatched advantage of decentralization over sudden and unreliable gains.

[betswift]

Crypto used to be about decentralization and financial freedom until web3 Founders launch dozens of projects abd VCs who invested in such projects dumped and left. Rinse and repeat. This continued for a long time till everyone got tired and choose to settle for NFTs or better still memecoins because over there, there are no promises whatsoever. It's just vibes and whatever can pump the hardest with no strings attached.

With all you have said, are you suggesting that cryptocurrency nowadays is advanced gambling? Because that is the scenario you just described above. This is captured when you said people choose NFT and memecoins because over there there's no promise of anything. Will this continue this way or it will changed that people will later realise the unmatched advantage of decentralization over sudden and unreliable gains.

People, in general, will choose bigger x's instead of the stability, or innovation, simply because memes (in general) have better shilling, they don't have anything that can't be understood by a common person, and they are everywhere
However, if someone digs deeper than that or, just uses the biggest coins on the market available to everybody (that's the beauty of it, really) - they would find so many possibilities that they would probably forget about the risks attached to other coins and tokens, especially new ones.