Millenial, Why Do You Like Crypto?
Our generation doesn’t know more than any generation what the future will hold for this new system of cryptocurrency. The push towards the decentralized finance industry is more of a push away from the US Dollar, or any established currency for that matter.
The Key Word is “Established”
When I say “established”, I’m referring to the starkest difference from cryptocurrency and other currencies — banks. Wages for entry level workers have failed to rise on par with the price of goods. For a 1 bedroom apartment in San Diego I was paying $1300 per month, my parents were paying $250 for their one bedroom apartment in downtown Long Beach in 1994. Thanks to years of financial messes in the economy since the 90’s, housing has skyrocketed and it will not end. The population is growing so it’s logical that the more generations we have, the harder we will have to fight for a home, if we could ever own one.
Bank For What?
Every generation will look out for their survival in to later benefits the ones after while pushing away from the previous. That’s how it has always been whether we realized it or not. With this dark reality compounded on top of the current threat of climate change, we will look to different ways to survive. With the amount of times my credit card information has been leaked through transactions, withdrawals, or being charged by overdraft fees, it’s easy to see how those who are just starting to make and manage their money will look for a more secured currency. I was taught that if a bank honors it, your money is good anywhere. My money however is being lent around, taxed on by atm fees with unaffiliated machines, and charged when I want to use the card issued by that same bank.
Decentralized In Every Sense
This information about cryptocurrency should be taken with a grain of salt. This currency began with a document from an unknown source that people still argue whether it was an individual or a group. Whoever this was, they never came forward with instructions about how they dreamed this currency would exist or handled. This is decentralized meaning that noone says how it should be regulated meaning anyone can choose to do what they want with it. It’s interesting that a young population in this country is characterized by rebuffing the free market/supply side economics thinking but are ready to adopt a decentralized currency. It’s not a confident shift but rather a reactionary push away from centralized currency that is still being printed and on the standard of the dollar.
Uncertainty
The times may feel better but they don’t look better. The Boomer generation held more in savings accounts than the generations that followed. Since Generation X, prosperity needed to be fueled by consumerism, credit cards, and debt. Since then the value of the US dollar is dropping, the price of gas has risen, the cost of milk has risen, there are more droughts alone in California since then. Earlier generations may point out a lot of advantages and opportunity given, but when you compare it to what is expected of us to meet our parent’s dream to achieve a stable middle class future, it does not pay it all off.
When cryptocurrency cuts the banks out of the equation and relies on a network with other members using the same currency, it brings ease to many who don’t want their security at risk. There is no doubt however that the cryptocurrency Bitcoin fluctuates more than the US dollar. Even after that, Bitcoin in general climbs throughout the decade while the dollar steadily declines. Let’s go back to those who love risk, Bitcoin is the hot new venture that people promise will go up in the long term regardless of the dips it makes in the short term. This could make those uneasy who are in too deep investing in the dollar like my parents and grandparents — and that’s fine. There is comfort in following the larger crowd. If you’re close to retirement or have money placed in multiple assets and your kids’ college tuition, why would you risk to make a change to another currency still young? This highlights the main difference from the younger and newer generations, we have less skin in the game so we have an open mind to try something new.
The uncertainty will dwindle as this currency grows to be widely adopted. El Salvador is the first country to officially accept Bitcoin as a currency while only a few markets around the world will accept it. It can continue to domino or peak and be cast out of the market. The value of the currency matters if you can liquidate it. You can have all the Pokemon cards in the world but they won’t be accepted as payment for other goods. The more people adopt Bitcoin, the greater its power will be around the world, and the world is being crippled with matching their country’s currency to the dollar.
Gamble
As every generation looks out for their survival, every generation conceptulizes a general effect. My generation does not rail on homelessness because we have bleeding hearts, it’s because many of us have been, will be, or know someone who has been homeless. We feel the threat of not affording an apartment with every paycheck because most of that paycheck is spent not saved. Therefore, we don’t see how the banks appreciating our savings will benefit us. This money we earn is being spent because daily life demands it even at the poorest levels. We have many years to figure it out, and while some of us have started to figure out the hustle of the dollar working multiple jobs, practicing financial discipline, and selling to viewers/followers, we want to retain as many of our dollars as we can.
Promise
The basic fiscal concept our education instills in us is that supply relates to demand. The lower the supply, the higher the demand. Well with this stimulus package, the Fed is printing more money than we already were, leaving the debt to be our children’s problem. Prices are currently going up because the demand of our dollars to buy goods is overwhelming the supply that can be produced at this current rate. With Bitcoin, there is a finite amount available, so with a fixed supply, the demand can only grow for a currency that does not obey the way our banks currently run. Even with the lag in liquidating Bitcoin, our population is only going to grow. If this generation is not convinced in participating with the established currency system, why would later generations? As the ubiquity of technology continues to grow, so will the ubiquity and diversification of cryptocurrency.
Scam Danger
If you’re worried about how much crime is tied to obtaining cryptocurrency, then you have been living under a rock in regards to the crime committed in board rooms when executives embezzle, hiding money in off shore accounts, and buying drugs. Drugs have been sold efficiently through certain cryptocurrencies but cartels and their customers have been exchanging dollars in obtaining the most illicit and harmful drugs for decades despite our “War on Drugs”. More wars and nuclear weapons have been funded with dollars than with cryptocurrency, so what morale does the dollar stand for that cryptocurrency doesn’t?
This generation and the ones to follow are more savvy about the Internet. As a kid I was taught how to answer the phone to strangers whereas I’ll be more concerned with teaching my kids to be careful how to communicate with strangers on the Internet. Fraud on the internet is rampant but older generations will be most likely to fall for scams and phishing than the newer generations simply because we were raised on the internet. We started socializing with people on the internet through social media, making us more experienced about how a bot would speak versus an actual user, not to mention more knowledge of how to protect our internet information. The newer generations know more about VPNs and password security than the older ones, leaving the next generations to be more knowledgeable of how to protect their data and browsing history.
Observant, Not An Advocate
This is a surface level argument on the benefits of cryptocurrency, I’m merely attempting to convey that the drive towards cryptocurrency is a response to the multiple times in history the dollar has failed to benefit our situation. Immigration exists mainly because large groups want to live in a country with a stronger currency and higher pay resulting in more opportunity. With cryptocurrency, these workers from other countries can invest in a currency that knows no borders which in effect it will slow immigration. Why leave your country when you can trade your deflating currency (ex. Venezuela) for a currency that continues to appreciate in long term value? It’s just another currency so we must ask those who champion competition and a free market why they are apprehensive to letting the market work its magic. If this is such a bad idea, then cryptocurrency shouldn’t be a threat. With an increasing Bitcoin value demonstrated in the last 13 years, it has proven that it can and will compete with the dollar, especially if more markets learn to accept it.
It’s no coincidence that the first cryptocurrency took off during the depths of the 2008 recession. Let’s not forget that with so many country currencies tied to the US dollar, the effects of a recession in the US are felt more drastically in those countries. With cryptocurrency everyone would start at 0. Some will choose to buy when it goes up and sell when it drops to prevent losses. Others with a keen eye will study the trends and buy when it’s low and maximize their profit selling at a high price. Investors will buy some and let the market do the work, as volatile as it is, the value has generally increased since 2008.
This generation is fed up with the established currency being touted as the most powerful around the world yet be devalued with cycles of printing money. This generation will look out for itself and for the future generations, and that lies with cryptocurrency for better or worse.
