Crypto (OG type like Bitcoin) as a fiat currency alternative with large scale adoption and a rational market could be workable.
The problem is speculators move in and run the price up into stupid valuations and then it crashes at the least bit of news.
People need to think of it like speculating in the currency markets. Crypto is not going to grow on its own, it produces no value and does not appreciate.
Any perceived appreciation is only its relative value to other currencies at that instant. It is like gold in that aspect, you put one Bitcoin in the safe and come back in 10 years you still have one bitcoin. What that one Bitcoin will buy will fluctuate based on speculation, other currency devaluing, etc.
In a rational market it would fluctuate relative to the dollar similar to other fiat currencies, based on long-term trends.
So you would need to think of it like speculating exchange rate dollar to Euro or US dollar to the Barbadian dollar.
But if artificial demand hits and people start hoarding (taking it out of circulation) it in large amounts relative to the supply, it turns into a bubble type speculation. Which is what we've seen even on bitcoin. And all the new currencies which are competitors/clones/alternatives are even more speculative as they're starting with essentially zero value.
The other problem is too many new companies trying to get into the crypto infrastructure Business without appropriate hardening, etc. It takes more than just writing code, it has to be seriously reviewed and constantly checked. Literally billions of dollars of people's crypto has evaporated from coin exchanges and wallets due to vulnerable programming.
The original Bitcoin block chain and successors are pretty robust from a cryptography perspective. It's the coin exchanges and wallets that have had hacks. That and people practicing poor key hygiene.
Somewhere on a hard drive I have some Bitcoin as I set up mining within the first few months of it being announced. This was before mining became as hard it is as it is now. I got bored with it cuz you couldn't buy anything with it at the time and stopped running it.
I know I haven't thrown it away, the question will be can I find it. :-)
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