What Crypto Will Teach You
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Interest in cryptocurrencies increases at the times you would expect, that is, when crypto prices start pumping. Up to now that tends to mean, when bitcoin’s price starts pumping, since the crypto ecosystem revolves around bitcoin.
The effect would initiate with BTC, which at first leaves other coins in its dust, and then amplifies as
altcoins
Altcoins
Altcoin is a term that describes any cryptocurrency that isn’t Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin’s inception there have been countless cryptos launched. Many of these have met varying levels of success, though several have risen to rival Bitcoin itself.Ether, XRP, Stellar, Monero, Ada, and Dash are a few examples of the more popular altcoins. There presently exist over 5,000 altcoins and this number seemingly grows constantly. The paramount altcoins as of May 2020 are Ethereum and Ripple.In terms of structure, altcoins can be different from the Bitcoin network in any number of ways. This is often the primary reason for the existence of altcoins themselves.Why Do So Many Altcoins Exist?While Bitcoin is both innovative and massively influential, it does possess some problems that developers are trying to fix with their own products. Over time there have been developed altcoins that makes faster transactions, while also altcoins that are less volatile, or altcoins that are more private, etc.Altcoins also can have different economic models and their methods of distribution can be different. Moreover, their programming languages can be different, and they can support the development of different kinds of applications. While many altcoins have been built with amazing technology and have amazing potential to change the world, many of them have been created as methods of grabbing quick cash, or even as jokes.However, some of the joke altcoins have still managed to gather a significant number of users and followers. The most prominent example of this trend is DogeCoin, a cryptocurrency inspired by the Doge meme. Additionally, other joke altcoins have also experienced large market cap, such as JesusCoin.
Altcoin is a term that describes any cryptocurrency that isn’t Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin’s inception there have been countless cryptos launched. Many of these have met varying levels of success, though several have risen to rival Bitcoin itself.Ether, XRP, Stellar, Monero, Ada, and Dash are a few examples of the more popular altcoins. There presently exist over 5,000 altcoins and this number seemingly grows constantly. The paramount altcoins as of May 2020 are Ethereum and Ripple.In terms of structure, altcoins can be different from the Bitcoin network in any number of ways. This is often the primary reason for the existence of altcoins themselves.Why Do So Many Altcoins Exist?While Bitcoin is both innovative and massively influential, it does possess some problems that developers are trying to fix with their own products. Over time there have been developed altcoins that makes faster transactions, while also altcoins that are less volatile, or altcoins that are more private, etc.Altcoins also can have different economic models and their methods of distribution can be different. Moreover, their programming languages can be different, and they can support the development of different kinds of applications. While many altcoins have been built with amazing technology and have amazing potential to change the world, many of them have been created as methods of grabbing quick cash, or even as jokes.However, some of the joke altcoins have still managed to gather a significant number of users and followers. The most prominent example of this trend is DogeCoin, a cryptocurrency inspired by the Doge meme. Additionally, other joke altcoins have also experienced large market cap, such as JesusCoin.
Read this Term pick up and go on parabolic runs.
That changed a little this year, as NFTs grabbed the headlines. While bitcoin was ranging sideways and not doing much (putting aside the fact that it was ranging in the 40Ks, which is remarkable in itself), you may have been reading about Jimmy Fallon and Post Malone picking up Bored Ape Yacht Club JPEGs for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Suddenly, Google searches for NFTs go up, and we have renewed interest in the crypto space, but coming now through NFTs rather than through bitcoin itself.
Still, the key drivers are the same things: prices and cold hard cash.
There is no arguing that money and profits reel people in, but having been snagged, if you then explore the crypto world you’ll embark on a broad education in a catholic range of disciplines.
Here is what you study, when you study crypto:
Economics
Sounds obvious, perhaps, but crypto can take you as deep into economic theory as you care to go. Bitcoin, through being disruptive in nature, has a powerful tendency to pull people in this direction, leading holders to ask, what exactly are we disrupting and why?
Read around bitcoin, the ideals with which it was founded, and the ethos of its true believers, and you get a 101 in Austrian economics, sound money and the inherent flaws in our current system of fiat money and central banking.
Psychology
If you are trading crypto, then you’ll be keeping an eye on the markets, and if you are keeping an eye on the markets, then you are observing human psychology in action, tracked as real-time data.
You will develop an intuition for market cycles, fear and greed, and the ebb, flow and madness of crowd participation. Hopefully, you’ll also gain an understanding of, and detachment from, your own emotional reactions, enabling you to buy into despair, cash out of euphoria, and in general, when required, deploy the contrarian trade.
History
You cannot go on a deep dive into money and economics without being drawn into some profound historical episodes and consider their modern implications.
How did societies first store and exchange value? What materials and objects have been used to facilitate transactions? When did money as something resembling its current form come into being? And, arguably most relevant of all, how is the prolonged debasement of money supply related to the fall of empires?
Technology
Inevitably, and particularly as we are now at a transformation into web3, you learn about web technology and the internet, and what is happening in Silicon Valley. You can observe the intersection between finance, gritty and realistic, focused always on the bottom line, and Californian tech idealism, which is nerdish, otherworldly and operates in a bubble but has fundamentally changed the world.
You might come into crypto thinking you need to brush up on your technical analysis and emerge with a newfound interest in how to code high-quality UX design.
Philosophy
There are those looking to get rich quick (and those that already have), and then there are evangelists looking to upgrade civilization and make the world a better place.
And, it may be that the dichotomy between the two is a false one, as actually, by improving ourselves and our circumstances, we improve our world. That is a stoic approach, and could lead you to read Marcus Aurelius. Or perhaps you’ll pick up the Tao Te Ching and consider whether inaction is the best action.
And, that is before you have got onto smart contract blockchains, tied in with NFTs and the metaverse. Simulation theory is an endless rabbit-hole, and can leave you questioning the reality of your own existence.
Art and Literature
On the subject of the metaverse, Baudrillard was not a fan of The Matrix. And, to what extent were current metaverse builders influenced by writers such as Neal Stephenson, William Gibson and Phillip K Dick? Even pre-metaverse, bitcoin (coded pseudonymously with a hacker ethos) has cyberpunk undertones.
It is in NFTs that we experience a direct collision between art and the blockchain. This year’s JPEG summer has led to high profile crypto assets selling for enormous sums at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and intertwines blockchain technology with discussions of provenance, forgery and from where art derives its merit and desirability. This in turn relates to issues of scarcity, which brings us back round to economics and stores of value.
Politics
I am hesitant to add this one, since one of the draws of markets is that they are apolitical, and the great thing about bitcoin is that it is accessible to everyone, regardless of their political persuasion. You could argue, though, that this in itself is a political point.
An attractive ideal, potentially realized by bitcoin and crypto, is to remove control of our money from politicians and central authorities. Certainly, crypto can lead you to wonder whether governments and central banks should have the control that they do over something as fundamental to our freedom as our means of conducting transactions with one another.
What is more, crypto has disrupted existing models not by going through the prescribed channels, but simply by building alternatives outside of, and largely ignoring, the establishment structures.
Interest in cryptocurrencies increases at the times you would expect, that is, when crypto prices start pumping. Up to now that tends to mean, when bitcoin’s price starts pumping, since the crypto ecosystem revolves around bitcoin.
That changed a little this year, as NFTs grabbed the headlines. While bitcoin was ranging sideways and not doing much (putting aside the fact that it was ranging in the 40Ks, which is remarkable in itself), you may have been reading about Jimmy Fallon and Post Malone picking up Bored Ape Yacht Club JPEGs for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Suddenly, Google searches for NFTs go up, and we have renewed interest in the crypto space, but coming now through NFTs rather than through bitcoin itself.
Still, the key drivers are the same things: prices and cold hard cash.
There is no arguing that money and profits reel people in, but having been snagged, if you then explore the crypto world you’ll embark on a broad education in a catholic range of disciplines.
Here is what you study, when you study crypto:
Economics
Sounds obvious, perhaps, but crypto can take you as deep into economic theory as you care to go. Bitcoin, through being disruptive in nature, has a powerful tendency to pull people in this direction, leading holders to ask, what exactly are we disrupting and why?
Read around bitcoin, the ideals with which it was founded, and the ethos of its true believers, and you get a 101 in Austrian economics, sound money and the inherent flaws in our current system of fiat money and central banking.
Psychology
If you are trading crypto, then you’ll be keeping an eye on the markets, and if you are keeping an eye on the markets, then you are observing human psychology in action, tracked as real-time data.
You will develop an intuition for market cycles, fear and greed, and the ebb, flow and madness of crowd participation. Hopefully, you’ll also gain an understanding of, and detachment from, your own emotional reactions, enabling you to buy into despair, cash out of euphoria, and in general, when required, deploy the contrarian trade.
History
You cannot go on a deep dive into money and economics without being drawn into some profound historical episodes and consider their modern implications.
How did societies first store and exchange value? What materials and objects have been used to facilitate transactions? When did money as something resembling its current form come into being? And, arguably most relevant of all, how is the prolonged debasement of money supply related to the fall of empires?
Technology
Inevitably, and particularly as we are now at a transformation into web3, you learn about web technology and the internet, and what is happening in Silicon Valley. You can observe the intersection between finance, gritty and realistic, focused always on the bottom line, and Californian tech idealism, which is nerdish, otherworldly and operates in a bubble but has fundamentally changed the world.
You might come into crypto thinking you need to brush up on your technical analysis and emerge with a newfound interest in how to code high-quality UX design.
Philosophy
There are those looking to get rich quick (and those that already have), and then there are evangelists looking to upgrade civilization and make the world a better place.
And, it may be that the dichotomy between the two is a false one, as actually, by improving ourselves and our circumstances, we improve our world. That is a stoic approach, and could lead you to read Marcus Aurelius. Or perhaps you’ll pick up the Tao Te Ching and consider whether inaction is the best action.
And, that is before you have got onto smart contract blockchains, tied in with NFTs and the metaverse. Simulation theory is an endless rabbit-hole, and can leave you questioning the reality of your own existence.
Art and Literature
On the subject of the metaverse, Baudrillard was not a fan of The Matrix. And, to what extent were current metaverse builders influenced by writers such as Neal Stephenson, William Gibson and Phillip K Dick? Even pre-metaverse, bitcoin (coded pseudonymously with a hacker ethos) has cyberpunk undertones.
It is in NFTs that we experience a direct collision between art and the blockchain. This year’s JPEG summer has led to high profile crypto assets selling for enormous sums at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and intertwines blockchain technology with discussions of provenance, forgery and from where art derives its merit and desirability. This in turn relates to issues of scarcity, which brings us back round to economics and stores of value.
Politics
I am hesitant to add this one, since one of the draws of markets is that they are apolitical, and the great thing about bitcoin is that it is accessible to everyone, regardless of their political persuasion. You could argue, though, that this in itself is a political point.
An attractive ideal, potentially realized by bitcoin and crypto, is to remove control of our money from politicians and central authorities. Certainly, crypto can lead you to wonder whether governments and central banks should have the control that they do over something as fundamental to our freedom as our means of conducting transactions with one another.
What is more, crypto has disrupted existing models not by going through the prescribed channels, but simply by building alternatives outside of, and largely ignoring, the establishment structures.
Cryptocurrency
