Topic: PRICE VOLATILITY OR PRICE-STABILITY

[MISERICORDAE]

Bitcoin rose to $16000 in late 2017 and dragged up values of Ethereum, Litecoin, Dash and almost all existing cryptocurrencies at the time. However, by the first quarter of 2018, Bitcoin has dropped down by more than ca. 50% and with it came down all other cryptocurrencies. This scenario impacted poorly on the blockchain ecosystem, hitting hard on early and potential general adopters, and unplugging computing devices deployed to secure networks as steady rise in network difficulties continued with incentives dropping below threshold for offsetting energy, device and time costs. Fast rising network difficulty attributed to ASIC, which outpace CPU, GPU, and FPGA by a large margin in mining speed, led to its enforced ban in some key blockchain algorithms. In addition, recyclability after new ASIC versions are built and at the end of a cryptocurrency mineability has become a waste issue. Personalized forking of algorithms to create new coins as an answer to outdated versions of ASIC has not worked as these new coins disappear in short time. The same is also true for some tokens created on Ethereum platforms, leaving novice users vulnerable and at a nightmare. While simultaneous mining of two to five different algorithms by a handful of cryptocurrencies has been a step-forward in the ecosystem, still unresolved are the issues of large mining inequalities and gain margin between CPU, GPU, FPGA and ASIC due to linearity of computing difficulty with computation speed.

Many have resorted to investing in new cryptocurrencies/tokens from all different kinds of algorithms with the high hopes of at least recouping back their losses due to the aforementioned factors. However, these hopes continue to be crushed under the weight of many forces. The technicalities involved in this habitat of cryptocurrency remains a horrendous for the old and the young generations who are all equally scrambling to gain basic knowledge of it. Whether by buying miners to mine or by buying tokens to hold, one could assert that users are simply investing and supporting blockchain efforts with their livelihood. Wiping it out with high price-volatility or market fluctuations is an ‘epoborium’ of insensitivity to common sense.

The fact is that blockchain technology is actually a form of Artificial Intelligence. As we create it, we ought to start telling it to be behaving and be accommodating to those with advanced knowledge and also to those with near-zero knowledge. It is here to serve us all and not us serving it. Over 90% of the global population are really in the latter category of near-zero knowledge and their most language is ‘buy (hold)’ and ‘sell (spend)’ or ‘mine’, ‘hold’ and ‘spend’ for a SEC classified utility cryptocurrency or token. The high volatility in pricing means that they cannot enjoy this most basic knowledge they have. The questions are: Is it not possible to deal with this sporadic and heavy losses due to pricing fluctuations? Is it not possible for us to sleep well at night without panics about how the pricing of our coins will go?

What is your answer? Which one do you favor, price-volatility, price-stability, or both?