It seems to be almost an oxymoron that we still refer to crypto currencies as “currencies” when we still don’t have a dominant crypto being used for transnational purposes. Bitcoin experienced some use on the darkweb, but recently due to it’s speculative popularity, it no longer works well for small or even medium sized transactions anymore due to fees and confirmation times.

I believe this is a problem for two reasons. The first being simple adoption. Crypto can’t really expect to maintain its popularity by only being a speculative investment. It needs to have a real world use that the average person can get behind, and the simplest form of use for crypto that the everyday person can use is as a currency. The next issue goes to the core of why Bitcoin was even created in the first place. As an alternative, peer to peer currency not controlled by a nation or government and totally decentralized. This was the fundamental reason behind crypto currencies and we seem to be wandering away from that purpose and instead focusing on blockchain technology that only really serves to help big business and banks, not to help the individual escape the current banking system.

When we look at the current crypto landscape and the projects people get excited about, or at least attract investors, most of them only serve to help big business become more profitable, they are of no use or benefit to the individual, and in fact may even harm the individual if used improperly. Take Ripple for example, Ripple allows banks to do their internal trading more efficiently, but how does that help anyone outside of the elite circles who own and run a bank? I suppose lower fees may trickle down to individuals, but that is questionable as most banks will probably just pocket the savings. Even so, slightly lowering fees is hardly a “revolutionary” result of blockchain and its initial promise.

Next, let’s look at something like Iota. I am a big fan of Iota and I even picked it as one of my projects to watch in 2018 in another blog post, so I’m not bashing the project or technology. But how does it empower the individual? Iota is another project that mostly serves the interests of big business. It helps them become more efficient, and perhaps that will trickle down to the everyday person in the form of lower costs, but once again, that’s hardly living up to the revolutionary promises crypto currencies were based on.

It seems like cyrpto has lost it’s way. Something that was originally developed to free people from giant governments and banks has now become something that mostly serves big business and banks to become even larger and more efficient which in turn gives them even more control. I’m not arguing that businesses becoming more efficient is necessarily a bad thing, but it’s contrary to what many believe was the fundamental purpose of blockchain technology and developing an alternative to fiat currency.







But besides the philosophical debates about crypto, I think this issue is one that directly effects the success of crypto. There needs to be a stable, highly adopted crypto currency for this whole market to keep moving forward. For one thing, when millions of people a day are completing transactions with crypto for real purchases, it makes it much harder for governments to step in with overbearing regulations simply because it effects so many people and their everyday lives at that point. As it stands now, very few people use cyrpto everyday for purchases, so most regulations won’t even effect the average person, so it’s easy for governments to sneak regulations in without much push back. But once the average person is sending and receiving crypto for goods and services on a daily basis, laws and regulations are much harder to sneak in, because it will effect people instantly and it will impact their pocket books, something people usually vote on above all else.

Finally, we have to ask ourselves. Is the purpose of blockchain technology to make businesses even more efficient at doing what they do, and if so, how does that help the individual?

Of course, the march of technology may be inevitable and big banks and businesses gaining the most benefit from blockchain technology may just be how it all works out. But it would be a shame if the everyday individual missed out on the benefits along the way because greedy investors decided to reward business oriented projects instead of those that deliver on the original promise of blockhain for the common man.