Over the past month or so, I have been messing around with crypto. Not trading it. Just doing other things with it. I will blog about it when it’s appropriate.
However, I am totally unimpressed with Coinbase and Metamask, the two wallets I have. Someone told me to download Crypto.com’s wallet and I did that but can’t use it until I get approved.
Trying to move crypto around using Coinbase and Metamask is arduous. Bank wiring is significantly easier.
Not only that, no crypto company has invested in support. There is so much fraud on the internet that when you tweet at them for support you get a fraudster. If you try to do something on your webpage, you get an online automated menu. The experience is terrible.
There is no trust in the crypto system and trust is supposed to be built in. When I first was learning about it, “trustless” was a big word used by advocates. I don’t see that happening in global commerce. I do see it happening in operations or operating type transactions.
I think that things can be built, but at the same time why reinvent the wheel? One of the things I thought when I saw the trucker actions in Canada was that crypto would be an answer. Turns out, it isn’t. People that wanted to send crypto were labeled as terrorists and the crypto companies caved and gave their information to the government.
For now, crypto is just a speculative investment.
This is where I am on the issue of crypto. I was CTO of a small crypto financed startup that ran for about a year before the value of the coin could no longer support even modest development efforts.
I avoided investment in other crypto currencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum initially because I already had enough invested in the crypto market (my job), but eventually because I saw the insane friction in the movement of dollars to crypto and vice versa with Coinbase. As time has passed, my bigger concern has become government.
A friend of mine who has had modest success investing in crypto has often talked up its benefits as a libertarian vehicle to avoid interference from non-parties. My contention has been that people with the authority (legitimate or not) and the guns to enforce it always make the decisions in the end.
Crypto can work in much of the world if a country the size and power of the United States allows it. I don’t think there is much chance of that. Crypto will exist, but it will do so in a way that suits the needs and wallets of the power brokers. The government cannot tolerate the interference with monetary and tax policy of a truly trustless and anonymous economy. The opportunity for graft and social manipulation is too low.
Other mechanisms that challenge government control of the economy such as cash-based black markets and barter continue to function because they don’t require the sophisticated network and attending infrastructure of an online system. Unfortunately, these mechanisms don’t scale.
I agree. It has a looong way to go. There is a GREAT podcast about crypto on Dr. Mercola with Catherine Austin Fitts and an Australian crypto expert. The discussion is well worth the time, IMO.