Last year was a sore one for cryptocurrency investors. Losing a quarter of its value at the turn into 2022, a small rise in April would quickly get wiped out, seeing the price of Bitcoin plummeted to one-third of its November 2021 peak by July 2022. By December, another couple of percentage points had been shaved off. As 2023 dawned, crypto investors were starting to expect a further decline.
However, through the first half of 2023, Bitcoin’s price has seen at least a 50 percent uptick. A similar rise in price can be seen with fellow major coin Ether. The volatility has, however, driven away many people who would otherwise buy into the form of finance. The original cryptocurrency was created as a form of anti-establishment finances, seeking to take power away from inept central banks and give it to the people.
Controlled, governed, and trusted by users, Bitcoin garnered a grand community that hoped, one day, Bitcoin would usurp fiat currencies. Now, it certainly has its uses and applications around the world as a form of currency, but it’s been very difficult to change the status quo when the mainstream media will only focus on Bitcoin’s value as an investment vehicle.
Luckily, the crypto crowd has other breakthroughs to look forward to in the same vein as the Bitcoin ethos.
In some places, particularly nations suffering from massive amounts of inflation or the influence of weak central banks, cryptocurrencies have become true legal tender. In 2021, El Salvador started to accept and support Bitcoin. In 2022, the Central African Republic joined the budding trend of accepting Bitcoin. Nations like Paraguay, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and even Argentina are looking like potential candidates to follow suit.
Those with crypto can also use it beyond simply watching its price fluctuate in the market. The likes of Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Tether, and Bitcoin SV are all accepted by many individual businesses. This is particularly true of modern online entertainment platforms that seek to create better transactions standard for their users. Sure, eWallets put an additional wall between the user and the platform, but they’re still another entity in the way.
As crypto offers more control, convenience, security, speed, and often a lower price per transaction, forging a crypto casino made sense. The use of Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ether expunges many of the issues that people may have with making a deposit to an online casino. By cutting out banks and middle-man services, the process is streamlined and private, allowing for quick and secure access to play Jurassic Kingdom, Sun of Egypt, and more.
Satoshi Nakamoto wanted to usurp global finances to create a fairer space for all without the watchful eye of governance. That doesn’t look to be taking root beyond nations that are experiencing distinctly dire financial climates. However, the ideals of the Bitcoin creator(s) can be transferred to several additional technologies that can similarly draw from cryptocurrencies and their underlying technologies.
Blockchain is the tech that most with a mind for applications and enhancements are the most excited about. While the current state of play for each blockchain is advanced and, essentially, as functional as we’d expect from modern digital applications, it’s already being made superior. Layer-2 solutions aim to make each blockchain much more scalable, thus cutting fees while upholding security protocols and increasing transaction speed.
Then, of course, there’s the budding space of Web3. Idealized as a decentralized environment in which independence is guaranteed, there isn’t a central authority, and community members are given equal participation opportunities. Web3 will be underpinned by blockchain tech to allow for its decentralized outlook, with other elements like cryptocurrencies and NFTs set to play a huge part in this setting.
Bitcoin’s appeal as a form of money is waning somewhat, but the crypto community knows that cryptocurrencies and the underlying tech have a bright future when the next phases arrive.
Alexia is the author at Research Snipers covering all technology news including Google, Apple, Android, Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung News, and More.
