Oh Yes. I am reading your comments. Classic case of a wrong post at the wrong time for the wrong people.
So this time, I won’t defend myself for dumping crypto onto innocent internet citizens. (I am guilty of doing that quite often though)
For the ones who lack context, this blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla in collaboration with Bohemian Bibliophile.
When I wrote about ISC last time, I got some sort of pushback. It was something like the meme you see here.
In my defence, I am writing about crypto for over 3 years now. On this ardent journey, some assumptions were made. In the lifelong fight for crypto mass adoption, I forgot that who these adopters were. Apologies!
So what do we now?
Today, I want to put forth a perspective of why I do, what I do. No jargons, no tech. I might avoid the term cryptocurrency altogether for that matter.
So for those of you who are reading till now, this is for you! Let’s dive in.
My Crypto Story:
The month was December. Year 2017. I was working in the sales team of an Indian tyre manufacturer. If you have been in sales before, you will be able to relate to this.
It was one of those days in the beginning of the month where you are called to a central office to review your monthly numbers. And no one ever has a month where everything is just fine.
But that is not the point. The point is that after this day long agony, the entire team gets together for a few (okay a little more than that) drinks.
Now my November was particularly screwed. So I could really use a drink or two to forget about the embarrassment I had to go through.
In the middle of this, there was a nerd. A consultant working with us for some project. Lo and behold this gentleman starts to talk about Bitcoin.
And just to shut him up from this excruciatingly painful monologue about decentralization, I simply buy some Bitcoin and forget about it.
So yes. My first ever crypto purchase was due to FOMO. Perfect.
Years pass by, and I couldn’t care less about crypto.
But then, near the onset of pandemic, Mr. Musk start talking about some weird doggy coin. Dogecoin. And internet being internet, starts this meme frenzy.
And then, I buy my second crypto ever. Because of FOMO.
I think I should be exempted from saying, “This is not a financial advice”?
“Of course it’s not! Have you ever seen my track record?”
But luck was on my side. My investment 8x’ed’ in a span of 2 weeks. And you could find me talking to anyone and everyone about cryptocurrency. I became the nerd that I once hated.
Until.
One fine day I brought this up at a family dinner with my friends.
And that is when my beloved wife decided to put this menace to an end.
“What exactly is Dogecoin”, she asked.
And no matter how hard I tried, I did not have a concrete answer.
That day, I decided to learn about crypto to make these returns constantly. And the deeper I dug into this rabbit hole, more I realized that this was just a fluke.
But I also realized one more thing:
“I came in because of speculation, stayed back for the revolution”
The Trigger:
One could easily qualify this as a pandemic thing. All of us had too much time at our hands and we just didn’t know what to do with it.
But the very fact I do this for a living till date, reveals a different side of it.
I fell in love with the vibe of the crypto community. Think of us as a bunch of noisy individuals who just want to watch the world burn.
Too sadist? Okay. Let me mellow it down a little bit.
We all know that governments across the globe have a problem with Bitcoin. Duh!
Then why can’t they just shut it down? They have all the military, intelligence in the world to do that. Right?
Wrong! If they could, they would.
And that’s what intrigued me the most.
For the first time in my career as a digital professional, I found a tech that is not a function of human intent.
Isn’t that just beautiful?
Imagine creating an unstoppable force. Now you know how Oppenheimer would have felt when he first saw the Atomic bomb in action.
The only difference? This technology could do good. Not kill people but liberate them from the years of sovereign, modern day slavery.
One fine day, some pseudonymous person on the internet wrote a piece of code and the world changed forever.
If this isn’t magic, I don’t know what is!
As promised, I won’t go into the technical details. Also, I have covered it in the past here and here.
Mass Adoption?
The next obvious question is if this technology is so powerful and world changing, why isn’t it mainstream yet?
Fair question. So industry experts would say we are in the era of landline phones and pagers when it comes to web3.
Imagine this. You have become a parent off late. After bouts of sleepless nights and endless panic attacks, your kid finally evolves into a toddler. They take their first steps and you are super excited. Tears of happiness glisten through your eyes.
Now zoom out a little bit and think. He just walked. It’s a basic human function. Yet, you are on the top of the world.
This is exactly how I would define the current situation. We break the internet at every little price movement. But the journey is pretty long. Hardcore enthusiasts think of Bitcoin as their child.
In fact, each generation has had their favourite asset classes. Our grandparents were into FDs, parents loved real estate and gold, we are into equity and GenZ are fairly comfortable with crypto!
The initial use cases are frugal and borderline pointless. But that is exactly how you evolve.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a website that will redirect you to Google’s product graveyard. Imagine a USD 1.8 Trillion company is still retiring product to this day.
While I cannot predict the exact tipping point, I am extremely bullish about the days to come. It can only go up from here (I don’t care about the price, but the innovation)
Are You Game?
More important question here is what are your next moves going to be? As they say,
What nerds and misfits do on their weekends is what world will do during their work weeks in next 5 years.
-Anon
I am not trying to scare you. But think of this shift as pivotal as the advent of internet itself. Can you imagine any brand not being on social media today? No right? Web3 is going to be a 10x disruptor.
Also, this is a good segue to resort to some Blockchain rant pretty soon. And I know how much you would love to end this before that happens.
So, I will see you in the next one! Pushing the boundaries of translating tech into human language.
Got questions? Want to take it to the next level? Reach out to me using your preferred platform from the links below
Until next time..