Why We Should Be Paying Attention To Crypto Currency

I know for a lot of Bay Area natives, even the mere mention of Bitcoin, Etherium or Blockchains makes you want to roll your eyes. I understand. Tech bros in the Bay Area are insufferable. I am now working in tech, specifically in digital assets, so allow me to be insufferable for a moment.

Punk rock doesn’t scare the ruling class or the governments that enable them but systems of value they can’t control most certainly do. 

If you’re really an anarchist, and I don’t mean the 39 year old dudes at Gilman who are a little too enthusiastic when they show 17 year old girls bands from the late ‘80s. Those aren’t anarchists by the way, those are called pedophiles. But if you really want to disrupt the system, digital assets are the way to do it. Punk rock doesn’t scare the ruling class or the governments that enable them but systems of value they can’t control most certainly do. 

Think of it like this: 

What is one of the fundamental ways governments stay in power? Money. 

A weak government is generally connected to the weakness of their currency. For example Venezuela is in poor shape partially due to the fact that their currency is worthless. (This was primarily caused by the United States, but that’s a different article)

Digital assets challenge the legitimacy of fiat currency and governments don’t know what to do about it. As crypto not only challenges their currency, but their entire concept of borders as this money isn’t connected to any particular nation state. Crypto also democratizes what currencies succeed or fail as it  allows anyone to mint their own and their values are intrinsically based upon user demand, not government coercion. Remember Dogecoin?  It started as a joke then Elon Musk got his simps to buy it and now it’s looked at as a serious currency. I made $3,000 on Dogecoin. What the fuck, right?

Crazy times.

I know this is a lot to take in and It’s hard to completely understand, but here is one thing you should be able to understand: whoever controls digital asset infrastructure will inevitably control the future of finance, which will dictate our entire lives. 

And since it’s still early, we should figure out how to capitalize on it. 

Some of the conversations I’ve overheard in the last few months in relation to the new economy have been blowing my mind and I’m completely a novice.

Everything is being replaced slowly right in front of our eyes. Everything that was considered valuable in a monetary sense now has a digital equivalent. Even the US dollar has a crypto coin minted by the government as they’re trying to keep up. 

So here are some equivalencies to help you understand:

Bitcoin = Gold because there is a finite amount that can be mined. This assures its value.

Then there are currencies like Dogecoin. There is no limit to how much Dogecoin can be mined which means it has inherent volatility. Its value is entirely dependent on user demand for it. So before Musk’s endorsement, it was worthless and then he made it a meme which increased its value exponentially. However, the only way this coin can maintain its value is if demand is maintained, which is unlikely. This logic is applicable to all memecoins. 

Now there are NFTs, which causes the most confusion and it’s understandable. It’s a fucking JPEG that can be screenshotted. NFTs, regardless of how fucking dumb they look, are the modern digital equivalent of museum art. 

So why buy an NFT when you can take a screenshot? That’s a great question.

Having a screenshot of an NFT is worthless. Just like having a photo of the Mona Lisa on your wall is worthless. However, if you fucking OWN the Mona Lisa, its value is incomprehensible. It’s the same logic with NFTs. 

Make sense? I hope so. 

Anyway, I hope this helped people understand why digital assets are important because if you want to understand the world, and you want  control of your life in a brutally capitalist society, you have to understand money. 

And this is the future of money.