Hi, it’s 2018 and time to talk about cryptocurrency! Just kidding…

If you’ve just started reading about the market, you probably lost the train a long time ago. It’s alright, we all did and we survived. Still, while things have become clearer regarding cryptotechnology’s future (not the future of individual coins, though), I feel that neither sociology, nor antropology made a profit out of it. Why?

First of all, let’s just do a quick recap. Cryptocoins are virtual coins that can be transactioned through a cryptographic protocol (blockchain, XMR, RTXP etc) and can be generated through a hardware minin algorithm (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum etc.) or through user performed services (Refereum, Gem, Skincoin). Some of them are correlated with a real process, unrelated to the cryptomarket (Banancoin, KodakCoin). In other words, we’re talking about monetary constructions that have no gold coverage and can’t be turned into payable debt. But they do have value!

Although economists might disagree, the system is not too different from the stock market, where you get theoretical coverage, but where, in practice, everything is dominated by the same tactics: speculation. Thus, we have a system where a token’s value (be it a coin, or a crypto kitty) depends almost exclusively on the impression investors have on it and on the available number of such tokens a player can acquire. Does that sound familiar?

It should, because the crypto market is a bizarre reflection of modern society. A society which is flooded with waves of of people that don’t really produce any value or stand for much in the grand scheme of things. These are people who become valuable through the power of crowds or who simply build themselves a sellable image. Cryptopeople!

(Krossfire Coin – A coin generated
by boring pieces of text)

You’re probably thinking about cardboard TV stars, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg, the coins that sold! If we’re in the media zone anyway, we can think about pop music audiences: teens and tweens. They’re incompletely formed, don’t have real income and their ideas are of no impact. They’re just passing through a life stage… but there’s a lot of them!

This is why a couple of smart guys and media moguls managed to convince advertising buyers that this audience is valuable. Ariana Grande’s 3 000 000 fans have the buying power of five rich old men, but there’s 3 000 000 of them! They’re valuable! You can write commercials for them, even if the financial pressure will be placed on their already tired parents.

Voter masses are animated by the same dynamics. We’re talking about poorly educated people who don’t really contribute, but they vote. On that sheet of paper that allows us to play democracy, they have millions of stamps. You, the supposedly valuable coin, are alone, because a vote is a vote and nothing more, regardless of how well it’s „covered”.

Don’t worry, this is not a politically charged article. Just look around you! Don’t you feel you’re surrounded by an inflation of 30 year olds, fully dependent on their parents, but convinced of their extraordinary worth? Indeed, cryptopeople! Can they be valuable? In large numbers, certainly! They’re the perfect employees that can set the market’s price. You can’t do much with a larger than life cashier, but with 20 000 of them…

Obviously, each and every one of us can set their own value and the value of those around them. I can consider myself valuable because I imagine I have a set of talents, while my friends are valuable because they mean something to me. Great! It’s just that my value to society is given by how much I can produce at my job, aside from it, or through my personal projects. It’s also given by the way I can influence other peoples’ lives for the better.

Surely, you can grow like a Bitcoin in your parent’s eyes, but if nobody can recommend you for anything, it doesn’t really matter. If you can’t open a Word file when asked to, it doesn’t matter if you see yourself as a manager. You won’t be paid like one.

Even more, emotional value is not real value, as much as our brain would like us to believe the contrary. This value only becomes tangible if someone wants to pay or to offer something for it. It might be brutal to claim that Elon Musk is worth more than a few villages from a poor country, but this is the market we’ve been listed on!

Few people realize the way the market flows, until they get to be a part of a live transaction. Be it a new job or Romania’s Got Talent, it’s important to understand your limits before the public offer. Neither in real life, nor on the coin market, nobody is obliged to pay for you. You get launched, you’re cheap and promising and you get bought. Somebody protects and invests in you, but, at a certain point, you’ll have to grow…

At a certain point, you have to reach maturity and reward those who trusted you, if not financially, then at least through your personality. You have to be desired! The thing is, from your first moments to your last breath, you will be transacted on a market where there is only one rule: you only win if you know when and whom to sell to!

P.S: I know I haven’t made a clear difference between coins and tokens, but I’m sure the experts can get past this.