Emotions Are High

Emotions are running incredibly high within the crypto community at the moment. Bitcoin, often regarded as one of the safer cryptocurrency options has crashed nearly 80% from it’s all-time-high earlier this year and alternative coins have seen an even worse fate. Ethereum is closer to a 90% fall, XRP is down 90% also, Litecoin has fallen roughly 93% and the bloodbath continues across the entire market.

The bull-run that occurred roughly a year ago attracted a huge new wave of adopters and the downturn spread a great deal of panic amongst the newcomers.

However, the veterans in the field are showing no signs of fear. It is important to recognise that the individuals who understand the market best are not experiencing the same anguish as the new arrivals and this highlights two types of crypto personalities: the short-term inexperienced profit hunters and the future ideologists.

The Silver Linings

There is still a massive lack of understanding amongst the majority of new arrivals who are purely here for a quick get rich fix. Financial trading or investing is a full-time occupation and therefore it’s questionable for inexperienced individuals to enter the field expecting guaranteed profits. Many are also non-believers in the long-term growth of the sector and these two aspects largely explain why so many late adopters are suffering financially. Unless you sell you are not experiencing a loss, the amount of Bitcoin holdings will remain exactly the same regardless of its fiat valuation.

Despite the immediate negative financial implications for those in the red, there are some silver linings to the recent occurrences. Firstly, it is an incredibly steep learning curve into risk management which, like learning to ride a bike, will stick with people for the rest of their lives. It is a horrible gut feeling that all the veterans will have gone through, but it will permanently improve your judgement for the better.

Secondly, for those who stick around, it strengthens your belief in the newly emerging technology. The first market dip experienced can be incredibly intense, the second a slight concern, and for the old-timers, it is just another blip in the extremely volatile market (admittedly quite a big blip). Bitcoin has gone through more severe crashes in the past, however, there has never been a time where it hasn’t recovered, ever.

Thirdly, the crash has washed out many of the doubters, leaving behind dedicated believers of the new digital cash system which is exactly what the Bitcoin community should be. Bitcoin was not intended as a means for profit, but as an alternative monetary structure built upon the failings of our current systems. The entire market cycle has made a large number of people at least aware of the need for an alternative cash system, a huge step in the right direction.

New Markets Need Time

The sector is still in its infancy and with time the problems faced now (volatility, bottlenecking, usability etc.) will be flattened out and insignificant, however, the incredibly advantageous benefits (decentralization, security, financial control, transparency, low processing fees, anonymity, counterfeit-proof etc.) will all remain. Cash currency has been around as long as 40,000 years ago, cryptocurrencies merely a decade; we are nowhere near the end of crypto and we are a long way off discovering its true implications.

Projects like Plutus are overcoming a few of the problems already, and there are plenty more incredibly innovative projects out there solving a lot of the others too. Soon we will have people seamlessly converting their crypto for payments at over 40 million stores worldwide, making cryptocurrencies usable as a currency as intended by the well-respected Satoshi Nakamoto.

To overcome the slow process of retail adoption of crypto, Plutus has merged the crypto protocols with our existing financial infrastructures. Payments are achieved via a decentralized P2P exchange that can exchange the amount of crypto necessary to make a purchase into spendable fiat which then proceeds to the merchant. This means you can pay at any NFC enabled terminal using a Plutus debit card or the ‘Plutus Tap & Pay’ mobile app.

The P2P exchange known as the PlutusDEX is already functioning in live beta and currently enables traders to buy and sell crypto at zero fees. For free trading of BTC, ETH and PLU, have a look on the company website here.

The team at Plutus are strong believers in a positive future for cryptocurrencies and the workforce consists of some very smart, entrepreneurial veterans in the field. For the newcomers strictly seeking short-term profits, one of the biggest elements of trading is learning to control emotions. For those in it for the long-haul, stay positive and remember why you are here.