The Decentralized Future is Here, and We Just Don’t Want to Believe it Yet
Ever wonder why NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and cryptocurrency exchanges companies are in mainstream media now? Why did we see so many of these commercials in the Super Bowl LVI like Crypto.com and FTX? Why do we see so many celebrities with NFT avatars on their social media profiles? Well that’s because the people are starting to realize they can make millions from this technology. The problem is, most don’t realize the potential that distributed ledger technologies can do for our society.
There are many who hate the idea of “selling monkey JPEGs that I could just right-click and save as my own, and sell it again for double the price!” in the NFT community — but the underlying technology is there. Ever wonder why Bitcoin is still priced so highly, yet the money you hold in your wallet and your bank account isn’t doing anything? At the time this time, the current inflation rate is as high as 7.5% and consumer prices are increasing as we know it! That’s because of something called Quantitative Easing baby! Right now, the US national debt is about $30 trillion and the clock is ticking!
You see, Satoshi Nakomoto, the creator of Bitcoin had this idea: “What if we had a currency that no one can control, and we remove the middle-man in the process? Something that is fungible, highly secure and you can’t infinitely print?” This isn’t what he said, but the idea floated around. Thus in 2009, Bitcoin was created. Even the first line of the Bitcoin White Paper should shock anyone that reads it. “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”
Imagine never needing a centralized authority or government to move your money, your property or any thing that is valuable to you. This technology has been here! For more than 12 years, it’s been gaining traction and maybe even a cult following too.. But this cult following doesn’t affect how well this technology works and how it improves our thinking with regards to how we value material goods and services. What is value? How do we value things? These are questions you should ask yourself in this new world of decentralization and financial freedom.
Now you may see that cryptocurrencies have an advantage over the centralized fiat currency that we, as a society, have to use. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized. With no one being able to say what you can and can’t do with your money, who you want to send it to, and what you want to buy with it. No one can change the embedded systems of Bitcoin and it would just be near impossible to crack the system entirely. People see this entity as a currency, but to most enthusiasts and researchers, it’s seen as revolutionary technology that is making ripples and waves in the world as we speak.
Hopefully now, you see Bitcoin as something else other than a “Ponzi scheme” and “magic internet money” right? Wait until you learn about Ethereum, and how smart contracts, decentralized apps (DApps), and decentralized finance (DeFi) work. That’s a rabbit hole you may not want to jump into just yet..
In conclusion, it seems we are headed towards a decentralized future, but in my honest opinion.. we’re already here, and it’s just getting started.
