Panic by old school financial gatekeepers is a fait accompli.
Written By: Allesia Pomopliana
*Banks, understandably, are worried and critical of cryptocurrencies. It’s a predictable reaction to a progressive monetary tool that shows so much promise it already usurps financial tradition and isn’t even close yet to critical mass. Nervous banking executives can’t be expected to stay silent as they watch their house of cards collapse, because change like that, is frightening.
Traditional c-suite financial captains can hardly get out of their own way as they rush around trying to explain themselves and buy time. It’s a digital remake of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” where everyone sees and admits the truth except for powerful financial companies that for decades have held the public hostage. In response to an eight-headed digital dragon that banks can’t control, they raise crypto alarms as a distraction while they hatch Fiat Plan B.
Customers want banking control that cryptocurrencies already deliver.
Headlines that proclaim cryptocurrencies have plunged beyond recovery are simply biased grievances from traditional banking executives worried that crypto adoption will have a negative impact on the tight control they hold over their customers — not to mention the devastating effect it will have on their personal pensions and share options when companies that are adverse to change, collapse. I’d be worried too.
Mainstream executives are concerned because just like the internet changed the music industry over two decades ago, cryptocurrency is changing how we manage and move money today. Contrary to what the old guard promotes, crypto is not dying. If anything is dead, it’s exorbitant banking fees.
The world of economics is changing fast!
The reality, and good news is that people around the world
are incredibly lucky to live during two major paradigm shifts.
The first was the internet and how it radically changed our lives. And now the second is cryptocurrencies and blockchain, and the benefits these new financial tools already bring to things like healthcare systems around the world. Major developments and changes like this usually happen every few hundred years, and sometimes even thousands of years apart, i.e., the wheel, the industrial revolution, evolutionary natural selection, oil, electricity, flight, the knowledge era, manufacturing robots, and to a lesser scale even digital cameras — all were controversial and somewhat frightening in their time.
Back in the day we called it progress, we now call it disruptive.
Crypto is a game changer, and protectionist economics professionals have cause for concern because it means they have to change, which is not only difficult, in many cases it is also extremely costly.
Crypto, just like the internet, is not going anywhere, except up.
Less than a decade ago I read and wrote countless articles about c-suite newspaper executives who were also in panic mode about their livelihoods. They irresponsibly criticized the internet, claiming it was a passing fad, and that it would never serve a useful purpose. Media moguls like Rupert Murdoch railed against it for over a decade, until literally, the internet exposed him as a phone hacker — the irony wasn’t lost on anyone.
Over the last decade the internet has almost completely transformed the old news industry, and in the process radically improved how news is reported and distributed. Middle managers around the globe at mainstream newspaper companies were fired and phased out by the thousands. Relatively speaking, hardly anyone anymore, except the most senior sector of society watches news on television, and even fewer buy newspapers. The internet changed everything just like crypto is changing our lives today.
Ignore evolution at your peril, because the further you fall behind the growth curve, the harder and more expensive it will be to catch up.
Bitcoin was the first crypto success, but not the only cryptocurrency. Financial executives and some news media would like us to think we have to pin our hopes only on this one tool, which historically has been incredibly volatile. Bitcoin started the revolution, but it won’t end it. There are already many more promising options than Bitcoin that FINTECH experts around the world develop every day. Considering the grip that old school financial enterprises have on customers, it’s not going to be an easy or smooth transition and is already giving rise to a sophisticated and hybridized economic war where ownership of territories will shift after each battle.
Crypto is steadily winning … one block at a time.
There is no doubt that traditional financial institutions steeped in conservatism will suffer. Some will even join forces in desperation and amalgamate just like the big five record companies did in the nineties when MP3 exploded, changing radically how we distributed and listened to music. In 1999, record company executives made the exact same arguments about MP3 as bankers make today about crypto. The five major record labels joined forces to fight progress, but they were outmaneuvered.
Crypto is déjà vu all over again.
Financial dinosaurs who don’t embrace crypto will suffer a similar fate and expire like T-Rex did when a massive asteroid hit earth 66 million years ago.
Yes, Bitcoin is all over the map right now, but hovering alongside like a drone on jet fuel are alt crypto tools like Ether and Ripple, which are incredibly complex and offer a wealth of features far greater than we have ever imagined.
Change is inevitable. You need to get on board … or get out of the way.
Crypto isn’t coming,
it’s already here …
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