Definitex

Though the quote above is infamous for its prophetic inaccuracy, its reference is usually without any of the context that led Metcalfe - inventor of the Ethernet – To make such a bold prediction. For in June of 1996, less than a year after the seemingly ridiculous claim, 3 of the biggest internet service providers in the US were down for 13 hours due to a small bug in the code used to update software. So the prediction wasn’t without a rationale. Flash forward to today, and a 13 hour country wide internet blackout seems equally as ridiculous a
concept, the subject matter only of a Tom Clancy tale, or the impending sign of the apocalypse. The success of the internet and its adoption into the mainstream, has in many ways little to do with its technological advancements. Granted the technological has been important, a vision of a Youtube running on 56.6k modems is just as dark as the aforementioned Clancy novella, but the once dreary text heavy database of information is now a sexy, glossed over, photo-shopped version of itself, and the stories of its early stalling and false starts, forgotten – like embarrassing childhood memories, only revisited by parents and grandparents alike. In summary, the rise of any new technology does not come without its problems and consequently its naysayers. Cryptocurrency is no exception.


 From scaling problems and transaction fees, to “51% attacks” and everything in between the ‘space’ is rife with the kind of problems that could haveat any point sent cryptocurrency back to its ideological beginnings. For the birth of cryptocurrency was not born out of the same kind of necessity that traditional fiat solutions were, instead its inception was created somewhat of the reverse; the failures of the financial institutions that govern our world - 2008 gave way to a revolution that anarchists hailed as the beginning of the end. But it was not to be. Despite the best intentions of the anonymous – and now infamous - creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto–the world remains much the same. The very same financial establishments that failed us, essentially remain in control. Though, Bitcoin has finally become a speculative investment which can no longer be ignored, it has not provided the kind of ‘liberation’ that was postulated in its anarchist origins. Yet over 10 years after its inception, as Bitcoin is finally taking the center stage, the freedom it was promised to provide is afforded not by the construct itself, but by its “offspring”. The Ethereum platform, proposed in late 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, who argued that Bitcoin needed a ‘scripting language’ has become the kind of innovation that is typical of a predecessor. AOL messenger and MSN, presented many their first instant message, a long time before mobile phones did. And though BBM introduced the world to ‘MSN on the move’ – it is Whatsapp that now runs the show. Everyone had a MySpace, but everyone has Facebook. Although the examples above seem to signify a decline in one in lieu of adoption of the new, it is actually a dynamic rendering illustrating the evolution of technology to meet the needs of the new.
As aforementioned, (ED: for the western world at least.) Bitcoin is a speculative investment. With a minimal use case, its adoption has been slow and cautious, villainized for years as a means for drug dealers and other unsavory elements to make money without any consequence. (ED: - despite the numerous arrests and seizures of funds by governments around the world, thanks to its most indistinguishable characteristic, its public blockchain.)