Hello Crypto Kiddie

How are you doing? Looking a bit tired there. Rough night?

You woke up to a Reddit feed full of ironic Bitcoin memes, a WhatsApp inbox full of “funny” gifs from your uncle, your cousin, your brother-in-law, and your old high school friends, and a portfolio that was twice as high in value the last time you checked.

It’s that time of the year, you think. Since you like to publicly declare your love for the industry with motto shirts and Twitter statements, you can now go talk to your mother who bought some crypto upon your recommendation earlier this year and explain to her why this is not the end, and that she should please not sell NOW, of all times.

As you pass by your regular breakfast spot, you halt and consider whether to save on today’s coffee or not – but just for a second. Then you inwardly scold yourself. Why would such a thought cross your mind? It will go back up, and much higher. Stop being such a scaredy-cat.

You grab your coffee, one size larger than usual – maybe to prove to yourself that there’s no reason to be worried – and sink into your favourite sofa in a corner of the café. Today’s business news flicker across the screen of a small TV attached to the wall opposite your table. An economics expert with x years of experience, y amounts of references, and certificates of z importance explains why this is the miserable death of that pathetic hype called Bitcoin. Volatility is back, and so is the global interested in crypto (“We told you so”).

One thing your time in the industry has taught you is to put a question mark behind any sort of incoming information. It’s tough for sure, and yes, every now and then you do catch yourself thinking that it’d probably be much easier to just go back to those days when the daily news would trickle right from your ears to your mouth, no filter, no processing. After all, you’d like to trust those people whose job it is to deliver accurate information to you.

But you wouldn’t be here if trust was easy for you. In fact, this is where the entire issue begins, and what it ultimately comes down to. Why do you cling to a market that seems to be succumbing to the majority of a society that demonises Bitcoin?

Because you have formed your own opinion.

Especially these days, bruised by a rather demoralising year in crypto, everybody’s talking blockchain. Blockchains to transform this, blockchains to revolutionise that, blockchains to save us. The past year hasn’t seen too much kindness for cryptocurrencies, the forgettable first use case of blockchain.

Why are they talking blockchain? You have come across different types of people.

Some do it because they use it. There is a reason blockchain actually became this trend word that it is today; one of the key pillars supporting networks like that of Bitcoin and Ethereum, the technology does have huge potential.

Some do it because they have recognised the buzzword factor of blockchain. Add blockchain to your business plan, and gullible investors will throw their money at you. Such entrepreneurs try to somehow integrate blockchains into their operations, or even build a venture whose core message is blockchain, because – because money. The business world is like this. Opportunity triggers greed. Can you blame these people? Not without blaming yourself – you, like every other human being, are greedy by nature. If anything, they are using their opportunities, though indeed quite selfishly.

And some (probably most) do it because everybody does it. Wait, the world is talking about this, so it has to be something big, how do I join? Read and repeat. Blockchain will change the world. They don’t mean any harm. They simply don’t know any better. Can you blame them? No. Because you would be lying if you claimed you never entertained an opinion that was not your own, simply because you didn’t know better, simply because you didn’t go the extra mile to read up on it.

Doing something because everybody does it is the beginning of the end. What is the alternative? It’s doing something because you are convinced of it. Getting to this point, while definitely not easy, is simple: the key lies with convincing yourself. And conviction comes with education.

Thoroughly and continuously (this is important) educating yourself on the topic of cryptocurrencies is not easy, but it rewards you with confidence.

You are confident in the disruptive power of a decentralised peer-to-peer network that, for the first time in history, lets us rethink the nature of value transfers, that allows for a global financial ecosystem which doesn’t exclude anyone, and that pushes the boundaries of our imagination, melting the borders of what we would have categorised as future and fiction into each other.

You are confident that today we are, in thought and action, only beginning to grasp the potential of this technology and its various applications.

You are confident that you are not the only one who sees this, and that the collaborative spirit of the community as well as the genius and passion who have carried the technology this far will bring to light these applications that you on your own might feel unable to come up with.

You left the Bitcoin shirt at home on purpose today. It would probably earn you funny looks or smart-ass comments. Mostly, the people you meet on the street would possibly think you sell Bitcoin (and still buying that pricey large coffee, you sure like living on the edge).

The fact that the number of people that own cryptocurrencies and the total crypto market capitalisation are tiny if you put them on the global stage can be, and are, interpreted the half-full- and half-empty-cup way. Too small to speak of global adoption? Or a constantly growing number of users within an already large community behind a young technology?

This is up to the individual to judge. What you see is the accumulated enthusiasm of independent people coming together over common beliefs. The community is the engine of this young industry, constantly evangelising, developing, collaborating to drive the space. Unshaken by backlash, by public scrutiny and malicious attacks. Nobody is required to take part, but so many people do, out of conviction. They have your back, and you have theirs.

This is why no price tag can shake your confidence. Because no price tag changes the concept of decentralised networks. No price tag changes the proposition of consensus mechanisms. No price tag changes the technology. And no price tag changes its potential.

You can’t quite put your finger on it today; nobody really can. And that’s part of the fun.

You are in the middle of a young, growing industry, not because somebody said you should be here, but because you are convinced by its potential. You know there is a chance you’re wrong, but you decided it’s a risk worth taking. This unsettling uncertainty is part of it. These blows are part of it. The criticism and rejection, the failure, be it in the industry or your personal failure in its middle, are part of it.

And as the technology matures, you mature with it.

You also (this is important too) have a Plan B, in case Bitcoin does go to zero tomorrow.

You enjoy your coffee, and you don’t deprive yourself just because an economist on TV said you can’t afford it.

Lina