Cryptocurrencies , bitcoin

Disclaimer.. I'm a crypto sceptic and don't own any bitcoin. 

This is not to say that I won't buy any in the future, but at this moment I'll sit on the fence.

I'm writing this post to expand my understanding.

What is Crypto?

It is a digital currency.

Bitcoin is a value based token. It is the first but just one of many cryptocurrencies.

The promise is that bitcoin is the currency for the people. It is anti establishment.

It is seen as decentralized, free from government & a salvation from the "greedy banks".

It's been 16 years since bitcoin launched. But does it have any widespread utility?

What is the block chain?

It's a public digital ledger ... a way to record a transaction that is independent of a 3rd party.

It means that I can transfer value to you without needing permission from a intermediatory.

For example:

If you go back 5 thousand years, when we transact with each other we typically use a third party.

If I was to buy your house I'd instruct my bank to send funds to your bank. The bank/s would charge a commission.

Or if I was to buy food at a restaurant with my credit card or phone, Visa or MasterCard or Apple transfer the digital money on my phone from my bank to the bank of the restaurant.

Blockchain is a way I can avoid paying the 3% charge from Visa, Mastercard etc.

In the past, this technology has been stalled by the regulatory processes from Governments, banks, credit card companies , taxi companies etc, etc. 

(ie anyone afraid of the new, potentially disruptive, technology).

In the past various US and European Governments had stalled its acceptance.

But now the Trump administration has come to power and he is heavily influenced by the crypto lobby.

The real person behind this is Paul Atkins. He is the acting SEC (securities and exchange commission) chairman. He believes that the increased use of crypto will reduce the cost of transactions.

It will disrupt the role of banks and move beyond the types of governance we are used to.

This technology is quite volatile. Eg after Trump was elected the price of bitcoin rose 40% in a month.

It eventually rose to 126K but has since dropped to 80K.

Trump issued 2 meme coins on the eve of his election (for him and his wife).

These meme coins went up in value, he takes a few hundred million out for him self and these coins over the last 7-8 months have crashed in value. This is a problem when the President is issuing self interested meme coins. Is he is susceptible to grift? Will people who buy the token  try to influence him?  There are also trump connections to World liberty Financial .

The Trump family receives 75% of net proceeds when WLFI sells tokens, as well as getting cuts of stablecoin profits.

Now it seems that there are no restraints to Bitcoins adoption as far as the US govt is concerned. 2025 is the year crypto went mainstream. But has this also soured the industry? Has it had the opposite effect of what the crypto industry wanted.

Instead of promoting the future promise of  making transactions cheaper 

and easier for the consumer has it made crypto look like its full of scammers.

Today, I wonder if bitcoin will ever life up to its promise of being a digital currency we can trust.

It has high volatility, high transaction fees & high fraud.

There is so far no widespread adoption as a payment system.

You cant use it to buy groceries... and even if you could it would probably be converted to hard currency ASAP.

I suspect that the real use of bitcoin is as a speculative asset.... like gold.

It's 4x more volatile than stocks.