Like many other crypto junkies I go several times a day to coinmarketcap.com to check the stats and prices. Today the total market cap of all cryptos had reached 100 billion US Dollars:
That's a good reason to celebrate and to reason about the future of cryptos.
Party like it's 1999
Is there somebody around that is remembering the dot.com-boom in the late 1990s? The NASDAQ chart in 1999 looked like the coin market cap chart of 2017:
(Source: coinmarketcap.com)
Some will say, that crypto is another bubble that will burst soon. But I disagree, and this is why:
1. Crypto is a new asset class
There's a intriguing graphical comparison of all asset classes at VisualCapitalist.com. Here is an excerpt from it with some common assets for investing.
(Source: VisualCapitalist.com, Note: The market value statistics for Silver, Gold and the Stock Market are from 2015. So they are slightly higher now. But you get the picture.)
Did you still think that a market cap of 100 billion USD is huge if you compare it to other asset classes in a global scale? A German business magazine has recently called Bitcoin the new Gold. All the gold above ground in the world has a worth of 7.8 trillion USD. That's nearly 800 times the worth of all cryptos. There seem to be much potential for future rising of coin prices.
2. Crypto is transforming business
But crypto is not only "electronic gold", it's a new way for making business. There are many really good articles about the decentralization of the economy with blockchain. But crypto is not only a business model - like SIA for cloud storage - it's much more.
Crypto is a new way to raise capital. The recent ICO for the Brave browser was a very impressive demonstration, how crypto can beat the stock markets as a tool for raising capital. Brendan Eich, the former CEO of Mozilla, had raised 35 million USD in 30 seconds. And, not to forget, with nearly no transaction costs. That could disrupt the business models of many investment banks very badly.
(Source: Techcrunch.com)
Crypto is a new way to create a community. Steemit is good example. The value of STEEM is the equivalent of the combined attention and wisdom of all the Steemians. There is simply no better way to create a community by giving every member a share in it, based on his level of his active and passive participation. Creativity and attention have a market value. Nobody knows that better that Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. Guess where his billions are coming from. He is selling the creativity and attention of all the Facebook users. A a true capitalist I am not mad about this. Mark Zuckerberg deserves all the billions that he owns. But I'm really sure, that Facebook will getting disrupted soon by blockchain solutions. (Or, it will disrupt itself, when the company is smart.)
It's not hard to imagine, that this kind of community building by issuing crypto token is not only useful for social networks or social news websites. Every company can use it to buy attention for its own products. (Many already doing it now very poorly with discount coupons and other incentives.)
Crypto is a new way of managing a business. The VC William Mougayar said in a recent Unchained podcast at Forbes, that many companies in the future will have their own crypto based currencies: “If you have your own currency, you have your own governance, so each currency becomes their own mini-government. Mini-government a big word, but it’s a body that is governed in a decentralized manner where users have a say, where there’s oversight and transparency.”
The other guest in this podcast, the TokenSummit Co-host Nick Tomaino, added that many businesses in the future will not be a company anymore: “People call them companies, and the analog in the traditional world is a company, but they’re really not companies. I think it’s best to think of them as decentralized autonomous organizations where there’s an entrepreneur and founding team but no legal entity … I really think of these structures as internet tribes. … They’re collections of people from all over the world that own a token and have ownership in a product and want to bring a token to the world.”
There were only three aspects how blockchain based cryptos will transforming the way of doing business. There are many more.
3. Some new crypto giants will emerge
The total market cap of all crypto currencies will reach 100 billion US Dollars soon. That's huge. But remember that Apple Inc. alone has now a market capitalization of 800 billion US Dollars. Is it far fetching to think, that one not so far day in the future one crypto based company will be as large as Apple? Even Apple had started very small with two guys in a garage. Let's imagine what could grow out of the garage of these two guys:
(Source: Internet)
With some future crypto company giants in mind, the 100 billion US Dollar market cap seems very reasonable. But of course not all the cryptos will survive. The laws of capitalism are working in the crypto sphere like everywhere else.
If you have a guess, what coin will become the next giant, please tell us in the comments. (It will make us rich.)
4. Crypto brings value to underdeveloped markets
One of the best things of crypto is, that it's leveling the ground. It doesn't matter if you are sitting in Silicon Valley, Tokyo or in a small village in central Africa. If you have internet connection, a computer and some knowledge you can start your own crypto business very easily. You don't need huge investment capital or expensive hardware.
But that's not all. The developed countries in Europe, North America and Asia have many institutions that are creating trust in their societies. Think of a register of real estate. When you want to buy real estate in a developed country you can look-up online the rightful owner of this piece of land. In most underdeveloped countries there is nothing like this. One of the reasons is that there is a lack of trust for the state institutions because of corruption. With blockchain you can create such a trusted register with ease.
Another problem of underdeveloped countries is the lacking of a functional financial system. Thanks to mobile based solutions, everyone in Africa who owns a cell phone can now make money transfers very easily. Blockchain based Crypto currencies can make these transactions much faster, cheaper and more secure.
Of course there are much more benefits that blockchain technology can bring to underdeveloped countries. They will help some billion people to improve their economies an get better access to the global market.
And all of this will fuel the crypto market as well, which will lead us to one trillion US Dollars coin market capitalization.
great post, well structured.
You got it, "Community" is key.
There's a lot of solid plays here and will continue to be so...as like you have showcased here, the market is very very early in it's growth and maturity. It's like we've just experienced the first real growth spurt over the last months...and wow there's so much more time ahead.
Steem On, The Dream is Live.
Burst and Nexus are my long term underdog coins. Really impressed with so much community around burst and the amount of applications connected to it. And Nexus...the big picture outlook impresses me.
Steem - Yes it's got Long Legs for sure :)
Steem On, The Dream is Live
:)
Thats all
Nice. :-)
DASH shows promise with its governance model
DASH is quite interesting. Seems I have to get some podcasts about it.
I agree. Their focus on governance is cool.
Dash is my personal favorite, you really should look into it.
Thanks @fabio
Can you explain for me why Dash is your personal favorite?
I hold dash too...and i love hearing people's reasoning, especially when it's for the same interest share :)
Steem On, The Dream is Live
You Have a Golden Ticket
It basically improves every single point I don't like in Bitcoin. Plus it is comparatively undervalued because many "old school" Crypto folks have fallen for Disinfo about it ("Instamine!"). Otherwise I don't see why it should lag behind LTC for instance.
Yes it is versatile in it's quick transactions. Dash has been my go to method of payment for getting lots of cryptos. Like anytime i can use it to shapeshift or blocktrades it's what i use. Bitcoin is more costly to move.
Where do you think the price can be this time next year? 1000 usd?
It's hard to say of course, but if they deliver on DASH Evolution, the sky is the limit.
I follow the project since early 2014 and so far they keep delivering.
Interesting times ahead whatever happens :)
May 2017 will be remembers as a special time. And we are part of it. Seems, that the party goes on in June as well. :-)
very good overview, thanks for writing
Thanks.
I think steemit has a very good chance to survive the bubble. Since steemit already has such a big platform with so many active members it has a solid platform to build on. Plus the incentive for users to keep posting is so big as on no other platform.
but only time will tell ;)
As I wrote in earlier here on Steemit: It's a crypto with a community of Minions, that are creating all the time new applications, discussing about the future of STEEM - and get payed in STEEM for good projects and ideas. That's unique in the crypto sphere.
yes!
Yap
The chart really helps put things in perspective. Crypto currencies are not yet heavily traded by the same people who trade commodities, precious metal or even fiat currency.
Once this asset class becomes the focus of the big institutional investors, you can bet they will aim their high tech weaponry at it the same way they handle other volatile assets. Using high frequency algorithmic trading and other robot magick. This will level out the winning cryptocurrencies until their trading range is as narrow as any of the major fiat currencies, as armies of bots scalp each other for a few pips up and down.
I think the winners in the short term will be Bitcoin and Ethereum. Perhaps if Facebook figured out a way to pay users to create and promote content like Steemit and/or YouTube starts paying users with a cryptocurrency, the big investors will flood right on in.
I'm waiting for the day, that some of them is creating a crypto index. Then crypto index funds will follow. STEEM is now #12 of all crypto based on market cap. And it has a real business model. So it should be in the focus of this institutional investors.
Great article, the party is just getting started for sure! Upvoted and followed!
Today is STEEM party in crypto land. + 46 %. :-D
Cool
the times of 2800usd reward on steemit war over. or coming back soon (depending on the steem price) but it is great to see you back again ;)
so funny to see your 2800usd post. the last one you wrote. good times!
Thanks. Good to see, that the STEEM-engine is working as strong as in the good ol' times of 2016. :-)
Very well written, @capitalism, take advantage of the market before 'the normies' jump the wagon. #partylikeits2017
I will tell my grandchildren some day about the great crypto rise of 2017. :-)
me and you both, brother ;)
i think a digital conduit that can be open, transparent, not silo'd that brings value to the users when they show their own values is an incredible achievement and one that slows the virus that is the human condition.
Steemit is a perfect show case for that.
Bitcoin stocks on a tear last few days a something new and exciting to consider. Here is the latest one I did a quick write up about, up 100% just today. Links in the article to the other ones as well.
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@motowngold/1-more-bitcoin-stock-coin-citadel-cctl-0003-share-at-time-of-writing
Interesting. Seems that there is the psychology of penny stocks at work. 0.0003 seems cheap.
Yes , extremely cheap, but we need to ask why, although it is at 0.0005 now. The thing is, they say they had all that bitcoin, but I cannot verify if they still have it yet. If they do, the valuation would then be verifiably cheap. The also say they have a lot of news coming very soon. All of those factors, as well as the underlying price of bitcoin, can be game changers. The risk is there, but for me in this red hot sector and with a dearth of many true crypto stocks, worth at least taking a chance on the 3 that I have outlined.
It reminds me of the notorious 1 cent penny stocks. When the price is going up, it would double at least. :-)
Good evaluation on the markets. I think there'll be a coin for every taste.. so that's all good for the purpose of decentralisation :)
I'm working on an excel sheet, trying to collect information about all the coins on coinmarketcap.com. Hope to find some gems this way.
One of my favourites atm is TaaS
Thanks for the tip. Seems that it is yet pre-hype.
Yep, the fact that all of crypto is still a fraction of Apple, one company, should tell everyone how much room there is to grow. Another 10-100 fold from here quite easily, and Bitcoin is still small then...
And not to forget - that is mostly goodwill now. When real crypto based business is emerging, the prices will rise much higher.
Oh believe me I see the writing on the wall man.
Besides Bitcoin and Ethereum, along with Steem I think Factom could be big (https://medium.com/@maxmiddelman/factom-is-awesome-and-this-is-why-c3c4780211db) and Storj
(https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@altccy/silicon-valley-new-season-based-on-altcoin-storj). Any thoughts?
Thanks. I put it on my research list.
Yes go Crypto, it is the future.
Great post mate.
Thanks.
Its pretty looking good if we talk of crypto's future.
But there is only one crypto coin, its called steem! Is there any? lol!
Nice article! I want to add you something more. In some countries like India, China, Venezuela, and some more; There is a limit to buy USD per citizen (china 5k usd per year). So as an alternative cryptos are giving all those people the chance to buy BTC and then with BTC usd, so that is making the BTC Volume to grow. Just wait until august, ive read in some blogs that BTC expected price will be 4000!!. Lets make crypto market to grow alltoghether :)
I totally agree. Great post!
Hi @capitalism, great post! I especially liked your thoughts on crypto bringing value to underdeveloped markets. Cryptos have the potential to bring millions of people out of poverty! What are your top 10 cryptos to invest in long term? Also what are your favourite penny cryptos? Thanks! Adam.