NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE. Just me talking a little about bitcon and altcoin trading.
I write this post with mixed emotions. The other night while going over my Coinbase account, it finally dawned on me. It looks like mainstream adoption is finally here. Honestly though, it's nothing like I thought it would look like.
For me, personally, I expected shopper loyalty rewards, payment channels on various social media platforms and email services, retail main street establishments accepting crypto, and of course gaming rewards and in app purchases.
Instead we got regulation, remittances, store of value, and now stock market settlements and tokens that represent a share of a particular stock.
I sold my stocks a while ago, but today bought back my first share of Ford.
I'll probably buy more in the future. For now, I just bought one share to see how it worked. According to AI, there's a way I can reinvest my dividend automatically too. I'm not worried about that right now with my 1 share, but look forward to reinvesting my dividends in the future.
In the great scheme of things, mainstream adoption is here. I mean buying Ford on the blockchain, you really can't get much more mainstream than that.
Now we're hearing rumors that the US may start a strategic bitcoin reserve. It's been a rumor for a while now, but it's starting to look like we're getting closer.
The clarity act, although similar acts have been passed in other countries, it looks like the US will soon catch up with it's own set of rules and regulations.
Mainstream adoption is here, it's just not at all what I thought it would look like.
On top of that, I'm now a bitcoin minimalist. I absolutely hate the project. It's the ultimate bait and switch. We went from banking the unbanked and crypto anarchy, to begging for regulations and transforming our world changing product to just another tool for rich people to speculate on. Lets call it what it is now, a store of value for rich people to speculate on.
Even Mark Cuban gets it. 'Cuban now describes Bitcoin as "disappointing" and says it has "lost the plot."' Like Mark Cuban, I believe bitcoin has not only lost the plot, but it's not performing as it should be. As Mark Cuban claims, the start of the Iran war is just one of several examples of bitcoin zigging when it should have zagged. I know, bitcoin, pull my finger! Tricked again.
I currently own exactly $1 worth of BTC. My altcoin portfolio however, is several thousands. I'm done with Bitcoin. I may also stop calling altcoins shitcoins. Frankly, I feel the real shitcoin is bitcoin and the bait and switch that they pulled on us.
I still feel there is a ton of opportunity in the altcoin space. I feel we have to wade through a lot of shit to find the hidden gems. Memecoins are a bad look all around. I get it, I trade them too, they earn if you play it smart. Still, I'd rather find functioning projects like Hive, that have a platform and usecase. In my opinion, these will be the next big earners. Products that actually do something and serve a purpose.
Some projects I'm still optimistic on are BAT, HIVE, DEX tokens like UNI, ETH, SOL. I even like XRP and XLM more than BTC because they never lied about their intentions. They were the darlings of the banking industry and they never tried to cover up that fact.
I get it... We're still early. God, I hate that phrase. Yet it's true. Major companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, and others are probably just waiting for the right regulations to pass. Eventually we'll see payment channels through social networks. I believe X is already trying to incorporate payment channels into their platform. Rewards programs from companies like McDonalds and Pizza Hut are probably coming soon. For instance, receive a token each time you buy a pizza or burger like the old wooden nickels. X amount of tokens equal a free McBurger or Pizza or something.
Once we got a basic regulatory framework, wall street didn't hesitate to hop on the band wagon. Crypto really straightens out the settlement process for that industry. Cross border remittances will only continue to grow. People buying stocks and fractional shares through crypto platforms are only the start. The bottom line is, we're on our way.
I always thought Facebook or Google would be the catalyst to watch for. However, I think this is the writing on the wall. Mainstream adoption is here. This is only going to continue to grow. It's just a matter of time before we start seeing all the other use cases begin to explode.
I'm still not sure how to feel about bitcoin, but the people that are telling you "bitcoin only" are lying. They have skin in the game, and that narrative serves their interests. The store of value narrative will dye on the vine. Any shitcoin can be a store of value. The network is a lie, any decentralized service with more than a few hundred users can create a trusted network. Altcoins are the future, the goal now is finding the ones that have a future through the cesspool of shitcoins with no real usecase! Find the projects people will use, and that have a use case, and you find the future of cryptocurrency and hopefully the massive gains that will follow!
