Concealed strategically throughout the hysteria of the pandemic, innovations absent from the elusive search for a vaccine, and perfecting sterilizing procedures and hygienic practices have been forgotten, or quite possibly deliberately off the grid on following business practices. After exploding onto the viral mainstage in 2017, and boring into the imagination of the average person with all the subtlety of a Ridley Scott graphic science fiction alien versus human artery bursting autopsy, Bitcoin tantalized the entire taxonomy of the senses, before exhausting the precarious insatiable public spotlight as business arrangements with Amazon or Walmart never materialized. Speculation morphed into promises of small islands, cigars, private planes, and a tycoon lifestyle. It was as easy as ingesting five YouTube relatable and intoxication success stories, and investing a few thousand bucks to buy mining equipment and awaiting a fortune, only to be disappointed that by the ancient lesson that things are not as easy as they seem.
The hype died a gruesome painful death amid the information bazaar, as the height of $20 thousand per coin, plunged to a dark chasm prompted by supply over demand, which followed with an uneventful two year suburban joyride of herky-jerky ups and downs in beating the contemporary sedan into the subject of fit for an insurance adjustor, and the willing eyes of a small auto repair shop. And then 2020 arrived.
Two factors are apparent when exploring the intriguing phenomenon of technological content absent from the daily news cycle. Of course the presence of Covid-19, and the election, have been a ratings cash cow for the mainstream media containing a daunting amount of information already oversaturated in viable storyline, and specialized reporters have been reassigned to the process the flood of data. The other element is the debilitating effect of lockdowns and travel restrictions on collaborations and the lack of access to in-person demonstrations exacerbated by the cancellation of trade shows. Add the likelihood purposeful intentions of subversive activities, and there exists very little chance in 2020 that novel gadgets or groundbreaking findings will extend past the realm of masking techniques, smartphone evolution, the annual news blitz of space debris tracing a near earth trajectory within a lunar orbit.
Within the core of the unprecedented reality of the bureaucratic response to the Coronavirus, Bitcoin has been a virtual no-show throughout the universal trending news feeds, an astonishing Houdini act of indifference or apathy considering the potential sustained virulence of Covid-19 particles on the hard currencies of the globe. Other than the frequent gaffs of a ghost armored security squad freely permitting hackers access to the vault and stealing tens of millions dollars in seconds from vulnerable cyberwallets and group accounts, the newsworthiness of the technology has reached the point of relative obscurity. Even the arrest of Bitcoin figurehead John McAfee by Spanish authorities for allegations of tax evasion in the US, has failed to generate any related conversation that manages to overtake the election, the virus, or the ideological and legal dissection of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
While the average price of the cyrptocurrency exchange has ascended to profitable levels after tanking in March during the volatility and future unknowns reflected by forecasters across the span of the financial markets, there was apparently no aggressive or concerted effort to harvest the munificent bounties of retailers and consumers clamoring for a cashless remedy to satisfy a logistical void. Not even a stridently obvious coin shortage, an insufferable affliction hindering small business sparked any semblance of a Richter movement reading from cyber-entrepreneurs responsible for the frenzied Klondike paroxysm chaotic frontier laissez-faire temperament of 2017, where the idea of Bitcoin transcended lucrative visions composed of precious metal mountains and green seas of cash.
DVR or stream ahead to 2019, and the esteemed royalty of digital monetary creators and unkempt miners ravaged and shaped by the ethereal fluctuations of boundless energy, bombarded the channels of communications with news of strategic and relevant partnerships joining the intoxicating outcast fueling DIY fantasies with legitimate merchants. For the Generation Y attention span of the blink of an eye half-life atom of “Brandium” manufactured in the boutique cyber lab cold fusion particle conductor facilities of Elon Musk’s counter clone Gertrude shimmering into and out of existence, critical thinking is impossible against the scale of quantum time. The concept of legitimacy for Bitcoin is applicable to the value of an imagined currency harvested from sheer computing strength and megavolts of energy being tangible and real in the eyes of the individual.
The list of partnering Fortune 500 companies was impressive, including household names such as, Barnes and Noble, Nordstrom, and Whole Foods, but the venture lacked the fortitude to withstand logistics and critics, and the idea of a suburban techie housewife in the Seattle Autumn leaves and shadows of the Microsoft campus driving to a weekday shopping interlude at the local mall purseless and armed only with a smartphone, failed in the wake of unsustainable momentum.
Now is the opportune moment for cyrptocurrency innovators to either “put up or shut up” in making a push to interface digital monetary units into the legitimate economy. The puns of dirty money aside, the world play applicable as healthcare officials have asserted that Covid-19 can remain active on physical money for 28 days, the majority of Bitcoin customers, a term that is used in the loosest form possible, are totalitarian regimes, drug cartels, and the most recessively insidious inhabitants beneath the underbelly of the criminal underworld and just a few caves away from the catacombs of Hades. Washing money has never been quite so easy, and the black market of the dark web is teeming with professionals who demand the complete ledger of undocumented weapons and arsenals purchased. The net result in the existence of eloquently dangerous waves of lethal individuals that law enforcement and intelligence agencies can only vicariously arrest and capture through browsing fantasy books and relevant fiction based on reality, seeds the basis for an unattainable dream. With rampant security issues on either end of the blockchain, and hackers eagerly lathering up with barbiturates and energy drinks in making a monumental score, it is a make or break year for Bitcoin to either succumb to a dubious legacy that screams sham and criminal loophole, or organically intertwine with evolving digital technologies.
On a thought provoking note, the technology of the blockchain is theoretically unhackable, and already companies are exploring methods to employ data preservation projects to ensure security, and create computer perfect redundancy. With the gravity of the upcoming election nearly crushing any remaining spirit of hope or sanguine ideals of liberty, quite possibly municipalities, states, and social media, and experimentation with blockchain applications to ensure that unwanted individuals or groups, are not calibrated to crash future parties.
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