How Do We Roconcile Bitcoin and Crypto?
Updated: Jun 29, 2022
It's a fact that bitcoin and crypto are two very different domains, which are conflated all too often. You don’t see many folks offering balanced views on both. As individuals, people tend to be more considerate of opposing arguments. As groups, people tend toward extremes. Either way, we have bitcoin maximalists who froth at the sight of “shitcoins”, and altcoiners who own every “gem” under the crypto sun, but no bitcoin. How can this industry reconcile with itself?
The answer? With time - but more on that later ⏰
We have our own perspective here at CryptoCopy. As a service provider in the space, we opt for an agnostic approach. Business is business, after all. The truth is also not always as it may appear. We are writers and editors, but you can also think of us as relatively unbiased reporters in the space. We write for anyone and tend to learn a thing or two along the way. We opt for the closest approximations to facts and reasoned probabilities for certain outcomes. It’s like archery; if you don’t aim (and practice), you won’t hit anywhere near the target. 🎯
That’s why research is such a large part of what we do. As writers, without hitting the books, we cannot possibly convey ideas with ease. And, from our experience, there is a minimum amount of critical information necessary to get pointed in the right direction. Any less, and you won’t hit the target. Too much more, and returns diminish as you strive to hit the bullseye. CryptoCopy is motivated by excellence as a habit but recognizes that perfection is unrealistic. We’re big fans of the “80/20” Pareto principle.
As for how to reconcile the chronic polarization of bitcoin and crypto, you can probably guess our answer - we don't know. However, we would like to offer our fundamental lay of the land, and our continued commentary as this industry evolves over time. We are still early, and a lot can happen before the dust settles on bitcoin and crypto.
Bitcoin and crypto are very different
As far as we’re concerned, what bitcoin and crypto share is that they’re built on blockchain technology, and that’s about it. Bitcoin was created to be a technological upgrade on the definition of money. It’s not obvious to anyone at first, but the implications of this are enormous. Based on our research and experience, we consider bitcoin to be a humanitarian cause at its core. We will come back to this in future letters. ₿
Crypto is like letting the kids go play in the sandbox (pun intended). Where bitcoin is a humanitarian effort, we think of crypto as the creative and commercial application of blockchains. Blockchain technology really does change the way we can do so many things. Anything that has ever required centralized intermediation - finance, real estate, contracts, insurance, books, art, music, divorce, video games, etc. - can theoretically be optimized into a more secure, public, fair, honest, decentralized, and automated version of its former self. This is the power of digital value. 🦄
We will also touch on the dark side of blockchain technology (ie. CBDCs 💢 ). It's fun to witness all the shiny new possibilities with bitcoin and crypto, but it's important to remember that new advancements in technology are inevitably abused.
It really is a shame altcoins are also known as cryptocurrencies. Crypto is a technology based on cryptography, but not one crypto shows the potential to improve money as we know it. As far as cryptography and currency are concerned, our indicators say bitcoin is the only true cryptocurrency. Details, details, details.
In subsequent letters, we’re going to keep up with current events and dig into the odd rabbit hole. We hope to have you along for the (volatile) ride! 🎢
