When cryptocurrency first emerged on the scene, it was met with great skepticism. Some of the skepticism has decreased since 2008, but critics still argue that it is nothing more than a fad. Some may go as far as to say that crypto will never be able to compete with traditional forms of currency.
The current news of exchanges crashing, and unfortunately, lots of people losing their investments, has caused the sentiment of crypto to decline, and the claim that crypto may be a fad continues. Although our hearts go out to any that lose money due to a company’s incompetence, don’t give up on crypto just yet. This isn’t the first time society has doubted great technology, as we saw in December of 2000 with the Internet. As the article snippet below shows, the “internet ‘may be just a passing fad as millions give up on it’”.
In the early 1990s, the internet was a relatively new phenomenon, and many people were skeptical about its potential. They saw it as nothing more than a tool for nerds and geeks, and they could never imagine it becoming mainstream. As you probably know, the internet did become mainstream. It has transformed the way we live and work today and it influences us every day. In many ways, cryptocurrency is following a very similar trajectory. Both of these new technologies promised to revolutionize the way we live and do business, both were greeted with a mix of excitement and skepticism, and both attracted their fair share of scams and fraudsters.
Cryptocurrency may still be in its early days, but there is no doubt that it has the potential to change the way we think about money and the potential to restructure our financial system, as the internet has restructured the way we communicate.
We may not know how long it will take for crypto to become mainstream, but we do know it is still early in the game. But just how early is it? Wells Fargo has provided a chart comparing the trajectory of the Internet to the amount of crypto users over the last 20 years. Essentially, we’re still in the year 2000.
Just for some perspective, here’s a video showing how people felt about the internet in 1995.
At the end of the day, the skepticism crypto is facing is very similar to the uncertainties that surrounded the early days of the internet. Those willing to take the time and energy to educate themselves in this space could be immensely rewarded in the future.