The Technology Behind Bitcoin Will Survive, Even If The Currency Does Not

[PRIBO247]

* Blockchain allows strangers to trade directly among
themselves without intermediaries, yet their trades
can still be reliable and trustworthy. This has
enormous potential in lowering trading costs while
increasing efficiency


Panic, mania and crashes. Older investors know such asset
cycles all too well. The recent collapse in the values of bitcoin
and other digital currencies is likely to introduce the millennial
generation to this eternal circle of investment life. This time will
be no different. Having almost touched US$20,000 in 2017,
bitcoin has dropped to about US$4,000. For all the hype about
replacing fiat money and revolutionising the way people trade,
cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are proving to be too volatile in
value, difficult to exchange and mistrusted by many. Central
bankers who issue normal currencies despise them and law
enforcement agencies hate them for their untraceable uses in
money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorist financing. It did
not help that a number of initial bitcoin offerings in China and
elsewhere turned out to be problematic, if not outright frauds.

Meanwhile, public confidence took a further dive after the recent
“civil war” within the bitcoin community. Led on one side by Wu
Jihan, co-founder of Beijing-based Bitmain Technology, the
world’s biggest maker of cryptocurrency mining rigs, the rift saw
the bitcoin split into two trading entities.

To go mainstream, an asset needs to be – or at least must be
seen to be – a store of value and easy to use. Most
cryptocurrencies, however, currently provide neither. Their high
volatility has been great for speculators. It is unfortunate that
bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology have become
so closely associated in many people’s minds. Even if all the
current cryptocurrencies go under, blockchain is still a valid
technology for finance and trade.

CRYPTOCURRENCY MINERS TAKE COVER AS BITCOIN PRICES DIVE 
As often happens, great technologies can spawn new
investments, many of which will prove useless or worse. When
the last dotcom bubble burst, many online companies imploded,
but not before being treated as investment darlings by many.
Yet, the underlying internet and fibre-optic technologies have
created one of the great commercial revolutions in history and
helped drive globalisation.

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY IS THE NEXT COMMERCIAL TRADING STEP. l
The internet made possible such trading platforms as Taobao
and eBay, and e-commerce in general. Blockchain allows
strangers to trade directly among themselves without
intermediaries, yet their trades can still be reliable and trustworthy.
This has enormous potential in lowering trading costs while
increasing efficiency.

Source : https://m.scmp.com