Emerging technologies always suffer growing pains…plus Bitcoin has survived far worse.
image by comicbew.com
Bitcoin is currently sitting at a $115 Billion market cap with each Bitcoin currently being worth around $6,700.
The last time we saw a price point similar to this level was in early February, just 4 months ago. During that same month Bitcoin bounced back to over $11,000.
There are many factors relating to this massive correction which could include:
- 2017 “Bitcoin hype” investors leaving the market
- Negative media coverage
- Political issues
- A natural price correction after a 2,800% growth in value
Market shifts like this are not uncommon in the cryptocurrency space since it is still an emerging asset class.
Every new technology experiences growing pains, one good example is the internet.
In 1995 a Newsweek article written by Clifford Stoll predicted that the internet would fail, here are some his most famous criticisms:
Buying books and newspapers over the internet will never happen.
“Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we’ll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.”
Clifford’s opinion on online news, classrooms, teaching and online governance.
“The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works,”
Apparently the internet would not be able to handle online shopping, reservations, flight bookings and sales.
“We’re promised instant catalog shopping–just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month?”
Amazon itself shuts down his last prediction, infact brick and mortar sales are declining whilst online and mobile sales increase year by year.
Finally to top it all off, 17 years later Newsweek ended it’s printed publication and it is now an online newspaper. Isn’t that ironic.
Clifford’s criticisms came just 6 years after the invention of the World Wide Web and 12 years after the creation of networks that became the internet. Bitcoin and blockchain technology have not even been around for 10 years.
An emerging technology and asset class
There has been negative news and political issues regarding Bitcoin but this is because the world still does not know how to look at Bitcoin and blockchain technology:
Should we leave it alone?
Should we regulate it?
Should we ban it?
So far most countries have actually been accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, whilst a few countries have taken a cautionary approach.
So is Bitcoin really on it’s last legs?
I don’t believe so, this is not even the worst year Bitcoin has had, 2011 and 2013 were much more brutal than 2018, you’ve seen nothing.
Once Bitcoin recovers in price it usually shoots to new highs if we look at its historical record, this bear market looks like a great opportunity to me, if you know any good products in the cryptospace, this is your discount season.
Another way we can look at this is how Bitcoin grew almost 3000% in 2017 and only dropped down over 60% this year, compared to it’s growth this pullback isn’t that bad.
Final Thoughts
I do not believe that Bitcoin is going to die out, to me it looks like the market is just experiencing growing pains which will even out over the years.
In fact I believe Bitcoin could go onto new heights in the future, this article has some pretty good points on why Bitcoin could actually flourish: Why Bitcoins price can pass $25,000 and even reach 6 figures
Just remember, telephones, the internet and railways were all doubted in their early days but nowadays you see people standing at train stations whilst browsing the internet on their mobile phones.
Finally I will leave you all with one last failed negative prediction about the internet.
In 1995, the Ethernet cable inventor Robert Metcalfe, had this prediction:
“I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.”
Does this sound familiar?
I hope you enjoyed this story, please feel free to check out the useful resources below:
You can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Dash, Zcash and Stellar Lumens from anywhere in the world using CEX
You can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, IOTA, Komodo, Dash, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin from BitPanda if you live anywhere in Europe.
You can also keep up with me on Twitter.