Been hodling crypto on and off since BTC became a thing..
Crypto has currently failed in achieving two of it's potential goals...
That would be: a store of value and/or an easy to use currency system outside direct government control
Let's see the currency goal first: there are currently little to no well known brands/stores accepting payment in crypto, save for a few using bitpay to convert directly to fiat. Average Joe won't have something tangible to buy and/or sell using crypto, moreover even if he did, transaction times on the older cryptos are so long that it would drive him mad, so therefore, it is useless.
Now the store of value issue is two-fold, how is Average Joe going to trust a STORE OF VALUE who's price constantly fluctuates at the whim of miners and big traders. Also how is Average Joe going to sift through the gazillion coins and tokens to find THE ONE; they all have pros and cons but at the end of the day BTC is like Gold (difficult to mine, difficult to move around because of long transaction times) and the rest of the cryptos offer things that are mostly irrelevant for Average Joe. EXCEPT BTC's value fluctuates wildly everyday and all other shitcoins along with it... Even traders dilute the market into so many shitcoins it is hard to predict any direction at all.
We have too little practical use for cryptos, the pricing fluctuates too much, the market is constantly diluted in a myriad shitcoins. Average Joe and many traders are totally lost. Features keep pilling up in all new coins, the only three that are really needed right now are: stability, speed, proper use cases (all of which are closely related)
The crypto market as literally killed itself by ignoring the basics of a viable currency and store of value.
I thought I my add my personal experience on this too:
I scalped crypto, that is all it is good for currently. I can't see myself buying anything tangible with my crypto any time soon. And whilst I'd love to put my savings into crypto to keep them away from (((them))) I simply cannot, too many shitcoins, too much volatility.
Caleb King
OP here again... Thinking about it, the way things should have gone would have been to keep BTC and its blockchain (no need to make a gazillion forks either) evolving to allow it to scale properly, to allow it to meet new demand etc...
Shitcoins should have never been a thing in the first place they only divided us.
Then I think real use cases would have started presenting themselves. Now, you can't prevent traders and miners from playing yoyo with the price so I have no idea how to go about that without regulations (which is something we want to avoid anyhow) perhaps exchanges could have played a role there...
However I think with real use cases the price would have somehow vaguely stabilised in the end as people would have tangible things to compare crypto to (and not just fiat)
And Average Joe would be happy to hold some crypto (BTC probably) as a way to keep his money safe from (((them))) and to be able to buy things without (((them))) having a peek.
Jace Thomas
Currency is a meme.
Daniel Martin
>lose wallet code >all your money gone forever >currency of the future
here's a newsflash, the average joe isn't a Jow Forumstard incel that believes in jew conspiracies
Jacob Barnes
Perhaps not but Average Joe doesn't like the taxman and surprise withdrawals on his account because "oh shit we miscalculated your electric bill from two years ago" (true story they did that to millions of people in my country)...
Jaxson Ward
You could say the same for cash. Except you cannot save a copy of your cash (lol) whereas you can always save copies to your private key in many places.
nobody carries all their money in cash with them, they all have them in their bank. Imagine if someone lost their bank account pass and bank told them sorry pal the money is ours now
are we still talking about the average joe now? might as well go to the cayman islands to tax evade
Brody Turner
True nobody carries all money in cash with them, it would simply be impractical... This is where crypto would play a part.
Wake up pal, Average Joes have been in the streets rioting against unfair taxes in France for a month now
Parker Brown
dumbass, those are consumption taxes, the tax is included in the price of the product, how can you avoid this tax with crypto? Also, the majority of average joes gets paid in a salary, that means the tax is deducted before they even get paid
Because with crypto you could both get paid and pay without taking taxes into account ?
hell you could easily buy, say a game at russian prices, instead of the ridiculously high euro prices...
Chase Reed
ok a game was a bad example because the region lock is actually in the DRM client (say, Steam) but you could very well order anything physical at russian or chinese prices.
Jackson Gutierrez
do you even know how taxes work? the consumption tax is applied to the price of the product, it doesn't matter if you pay with rubles or rupees or crypto, the tax is included in the price. And income taxes are deducted by your employer, it doesn't matter if you get paid in crypto or not, the employer will still deduct your taxes from your salary
Not if you work for someone "money in hand". And consumption taxes (aka VAT) are not the same in each country you can feel free to shop around for the best price then...
Jacob Foster
>Not if you work for someone "money in hand" aka not the average joe >(aka VAT) are not the same in each country you can feel free to shop around for the best price then. yes, its called ordering stuff from the internet
> yes, its called ordering stuff from the internet not quite, because based on your billing address VAT is then added (if the product isn't region locked in the first place)
Caleb Kelly
so crypto is gonna let you order stuff from the internet without the store knowing your delivery address?
>you'd be surprised... pretty sure the average joe works for a company that deducts his income taxes before they even get paid. Unless you have your own company or you are self employed crypto wont have any difference for you
delivery address doesn't matter when calculating VAT... because otherwise someone would get fucked over VAT every time one would send a gift to someone in another country...
Sebastian Baker
In any case, back on topic: crypto has failed to deliver on its promises because it got scattered in many shitcoins.
Samuel Price
bitcoin is the worst shitcoin of them all. Also, there are no "crypto promises". Crypto isn't a person or a company so no one can make any promises on its behalf
Have you looked up BAT/Brave? I see them as the only crypto project that is looking to defy this trend. Their main focus is building a Ad system that blocks out current ads and replaces them with opt-in ones that pay the user and publisher. They already have a payments ledger built thats capable of this, but when the Brave ads launch they will have what they need to build a functional web3 economy. They already have a headstart too with 6 milion+ people using Brave.
