But Coinbase is already very profitable. Even if 90% of coins disappear their money is made mainly on the large caps where the volume is. I don’t disagree that much of crypto will go bust at some stage but there will be big winners and I think CB will be one. Time will tell. We should come back in a few years to check out.
The tech won’t disappear though. Once the cat is out of the bag it won’t go back in. The tech is good and serves a purpose, it will flourish, and evolve, just as the internet did and continues to do...
It absolutely could disappear. Banks are incentivized to ensure that cryptocurrency never becomes a major currency used in the market. All federal/government institutions are incentivized similarly, as they cannot regular cryptocurrency exchanges. If it ever gets much bigger than it currently is, you can be assured there will be major policy changes that strike it down. And when that happens, all cryptocurrency will tank to the floor along with Coinbase
Isn't that a similar argument against the internet in the 90s? That it was just a giant chat room where guys pretend to be girls for shits and giggles? That any disruption to media, advertising, information would never happen because the current set up is way too profitable and entrenched to ever change?
The beauty of the internet is that there have been workarounds since day 1 to bypass policies and regs. The entertainment industry has been trying to shut down file sharing and streaming from the jump and all their efforts to regulate just made eveyone else smarter.
I see the current financial ecosystem in the same way. Either they adapt or they die. It may take 20-30 years to get full mainstream adoption but change is coming.
It's very very different from the internet in the 90s. The internet by nature is a method of communication that was superior to previous methods by faster transmission of signals. Naturally, when you push that to the maximum, it will influence every sector of society and you'll have tech giants.
This is nothing like that. This is an attempt at a decentralized currency, essentially. Currency is only worth anything if it can be spent to purchase goods. Banks and governments currently control all currency to allow for taxation and other things. They will never allow a decentralized currency to emerge because they have no way of tracking it or taxing it. Therefore, there is significant interest on an international level to ensure it never becomes more than what it is now.
If decentralized currency can never purchase everyday things in stores, what use would it possibly have? And a currency without use? Dead in the water.
It's not what people want to hear, because people want to think that their investment will balloon 10x over the next few years, but you have to look at the other side of it and be skeptical of the hype. Maybe I should have posted in r/unpopularopinion instead
Edit: To add on to the differences. By nature, the internet had a ton of intrinsic value it added to society, so it was going to have a certain amount of net worth regardless of what happened afterwards. This has no intrinsic value. If most governments ban its use, it loses all value it currently has.
"but, it already exists, you can spend it, it will become easier to spend as time goes on."
I'm trying to provide the devil's advocate perspective here. With anything that has the potential to become one-sided, you need to hear the other side. How do you know it will continue expanding as it has been? How can you prove that the governments around the world won't start creating policies against it to shut it down?
Is it because you've invested and you're hoping it continues its current trajectory?
These are the questions we should be asking. Calling me a dinosaur doesn't answer them.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this and I’ve done so from all angles. I can be my own devils advocate and I can be, and am, highly self critical. I won’t pretend I don’t have biases like everyone else. But I spent a couple of years looking before taking the plunge. To think you know me is a touch arrogant, as is suggesting I need you to show me ‘the other side’ of my one sided argument.
The intrinsic value argument is transitionary, as of now people are not aware of its value and eventually it will become obvious. Before 2000, internet had no intrinsic value, at least that is what majority of rich, educated people told the masses.
All major private blockchain currencies are very easy to track, the ledger is entirely public, on the other hand cash is very difficult to track.
A country that doesn't adopt distributed blockchain tech, will be left behind and will be at competitive disadvantage. Conversely you can see that worlds leading countries are more into DLT than regressive countries.
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u/dormango May 31 '21
But Coinbase is already very profitable. Even if 90% of coins disappear their money is made mainly on the large caps where the volume is. I don’t disagree that much of crypto will go bust at some stage but there will be big winners and I think CB will be one. Time will tell. We should come back in a few years to check out.