“The wake up call was finding this startling statistic that web usage in the spring of 1994 was growing at 2,300 percent a year. You know, things just don’t grow that fast. It’s highly unusual, and that started me about thinking, “What kind of business plan might make sense in the context of that growth?” -Jeff Bezos, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Amazon.com

Photo by James Duncan Davidson on Flickr

Amazon.com’s market capitalization today is $535 billion (at the time of this writing) and is one of the most successful dot-coms and online retailers that was born during the “early stage” of the Internet. When nobody believed in the Internet, Jeff Bezos was busy in his garage preparing for the launch of Amazon with the help of other key people. Statistically, Jeff was sold on the fact that web usage increased to an alarming rate of 2,300 percent a year.

Today, we are seeing that same trend in the Blockchain space. It took nine years for the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies to get to $100 billion, and it only took five months to get to $200 billion. If Jeff Bezos were to come out and speak about the blockchain technology, I think, it is safe to say, that he would describe it as similar to the “wake up call” he experienced back in the early days of the Internet. Why do I say that? Jeff launched himself into the unknown and followed his gut, based on statistics and market projections. Similar to Jeff, I also plunged myself into the unknown, but in cryptocurrencies, simply because my gut told me to, and also simply because of statistics. Hey, we just jumped from $100 billion to $200 billion in FIVE FREAKING MONTHS. How much statistical data do you need?

Photo by Jon Phillips on Flickr

Blockchain technology has been around for nine years since Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym of a person, or group, that founded Bitcoin) released the whitepaper through Cypherpunks mailing list. Bitcoin is known as the most secure blockchain network and as a store of value. While bitcoin is referred to as the gold of cryptocurrencies, Ethereum is slowly getting the attention of most tech giant companies, major financial institutions, banks, and governments. Personally, I think Ethereum is the platinum of cryptocurrencies. Technology-wise, Ethereum network is far superior to Bitcoin and, while that may be true, Ethereum has a long way to go before it is ready for mass adoption.

I’ve been in this space since 2013, it’s when I purchased my first bitcoins and diversified them into altcoins while keeping a modest amount of bitcoins. I’ve also participated in Ethereum pre-sale tokens. I was already an established investor when I read about Ethereum for the first time, I had my fair share of skepticism just like many have had with bitcoin and the internet during the early stage of development. But my “wake up call” experience did not come until large banks and tech giants in the United States and European countries started inquiring about the technology of Ethereum.