The End of Crypto Winter? When Crypto Matters to Your Neighbor.
By: Alison Mccauley
Tags: Tech, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Technology, Bitcoin

Photo: Eric Nopanen, Unsplash

There’s much speculation this week as the cryptocurrency market nudges upward. Are we poised for a breakout? Are we here briefly before another plunge?

If you believe tokenization and crypto assets have value beyond speculative interest — that this new tool could improve the way people, businesses, or governments not only transact but interact—these are the wrong questions.

No doubt, all sorts of exciting things will happen in the market before we see broad adoption of innovative crypto use cases. In this interim, many people will likely make a lot of money. Others will lose just as much. But until we get to the point where crypto assets are making a real difference in businesses or how we live, play, and work in our communities, this space will carry an element of ‘smoke and mirrors’ to those outsiders looking in on what we’re all building.

If you believe in the functionality of tokenization and crypto assets, this is an important moment to invest in helping others to understand this potential. Cryptocurrency has been pretty bruised and beaten over the last year. It has a bad rap. Conceptually, many have kicked it to the curb. For those outside the community, other types of crypto assets may not even be on the radar.

To evolve past crypto winter — not just for a blip, but for something sustainable — educate, share, and illustrate. To overcome the fallout from an overextended hype cycle, help your neighbor understand how crypto assets could make a difference in their life. Here are two articles to start.

How will it change the way we transact when we can easily put enforceable terms and conditions on the movement of money? Forbes

Is Money The Next Thing To Be Eaten By Software?

Cryptocurrency, when paired with other blockchain functionality, offers the potential to inject new software-driven features into the traditional role of money as a medium of exchange. These features could form the core of new business models and drive innovative benefits to consumers and businesses alike. What happens when money is programmable? Read more on Forbes.

Corporations, entrepreneurs, and even governments are looking to the unique functionality of blockchains and digital currency to enable this future. Venture Beat

Self-Driving Cars Could Soon Navigate The World Via Micropayments

Connected machines and sensors have their own complex web of machine-to-machine communication. What they haven’t had is money to negotiate and transact among themselves. “We envision a world in which vehicles can communicate their intentions with other vehicles and coordinate their behavior,” explains MOBI CEO Chris Ballinger. “Micropayments give machines an incentive, and whether it’s about a pothole, traffic, or other conditions, that data is valuable. Many of the useful things we can do with cars and other vehicles will require micropayments from one machine to another.” Read more on Venture Beat.

What use cases would you like to see more people understand? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

About the Author

Alison McCauley is CEO and Founder of Unblocked Future, a speaker, and the best-selling author of ‘Unblocked: How Blockchains will Change Your Business’. She has focused on the intersection of human behavior and emerging technology with 20 years of consulting to over 100 technology-first startups and Fortune-500 companies. Follow her on Twitter @unblockedfuture.