Why I Fell Out of Love With Crypto

I got my first Bitcoin in early 2014.

The year before that BTC had its one of its first exponential price rises, with a blow off top just over $1,000 USD.

This generated a few headlines and grabbed my attention. The 2008/2009 global financial crisis and the bailing out of the banks who caused it using our tax money was still a fresh wound in my mind.

I hated the way the financial system worked; many of us did. When I found out that across the world banks had been gifted the right to print money out of thin air whenever someone takes out a loan I was furious. When I learned how inflation take wealth from people living on a paycheck and transfers it to those with assets (the rich) I was apoplectic. The whole financial system of fiat money seems to have been designed to rob the poor and give to the rich.

In those days Bitcoin represented hope for the future. It represented hope for a better system, owned and controlled by the people and not the banksters. And, of course, it represented hope that I could improve my own meagre financial situation if it succeeded simply by being an early adopter and holding on to my coins.

The second part of this hope succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.

I earned around $800 worth of crypto writing press releases and blog posts for crypto companies and accepting BTC or altcoins as payment. This got me started, and I quickly become hooked. Over the next few years I earned more, took airdrops and freebies and traded my way up to hundreds of thousands worth. I bought a house and started a business because of crypto.

The first part has failed miserably.

I blame the success people like me had in making easy money on the failure of Crypto to change our financial system for the better. When I look into the crypto world today I barely see any of the early idealism which drove many of us to take an interest in this exciting new technology. I barely see any idealism, in fact. It's all just about easy money and becoming an investor or trader.

Crypto communities just jump from one fad to the next, not caring about anything much but the hype. Its human nature I suppose. And like I said, the same desires drove me too so I can't criticize. Real world use-cases are not exactly non-existent, but close enough to zero to look like a rounding error. And the main people benefiting from crypto today are fund managers and millionaires with money to play the markets.

Without that hope that crypto can change the world, change the financial system, make the way money works a little fairer and a bit less corrupt - I'm just not that interested in crypto anymore.

But they say hope springs eternal.

So I'm leaving the door open as I leave.

Here's what I would like to see to come back to crypto:

* Real-world use matching or overtaking speculation and investment.

* The provision of alternatives that fix the flaws of the current financial system.

* User-friendly interfaces that anybody can take advantage of.

I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I'm not expecting to return to crypto.