reason #15
BITCOIN is growing faster than the internet
People do not like change. Not everyone embraced the Internet with open arms. Many people did not have a clue what it was. Newsweek ran an article dismissing every use case for the Internet. Here are some of the highlights from the Newsweek article: “They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make the government more democratic. Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth is that no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher, and no computer network will change how the government works”.
Bitcoin has its fair share of haters. Critics highlight the high energy costs, the belief it has no intrinsic value, and that it is a Ponzo scheme. Warren Buffett, the greatest living investor, went so far as to call it rat poison squared. Regardless of your views, there are a few facts that are irrefutable. Bitcoin and Blockchain is the fastest-adopted technology in human history. Here’s the speed of adoption. Bitcoin had around the same number of users as the Internet did in 1997. The rise and adoption of crypto had been compared with the rise and adoption of the internet. The internet is the digital exchange of information and has been a phenomenal success. Crypto is the digital exchange of value and the question has to be asked whether the adoption of crypto will surpass that of the internet. Both are decentralized and it is this freedom that rattles the nerves of many investors. There is a big difference between sending an email and making a payment with Bitcoin.
So what percentage of the global population has adopted crypto? It is less than 2 percent which was the same rate of adoption of the internet in 1997. People quickly forget that the adoption of the internet was slow. It was first introduced in 1983 and after 14 years only 2 percent of the people had adopted it. That closely mirrors the performance of crypto. Bitcoin first came to light at the end of 2008 which also makes it 14 years old and it too is sitting on an adoption of 2 percent. Early adoption of the internet did lead to the dot.com crash in 2000. Hysterical investors massively inflated internet stocks believing that the new economy of the internet would displace the old traditional economy. Humans are known for irrational exuberance and the crash resulted in a dramatic loss in consumer confidence. In the crash, high-quality stocks like Amazon were punished as severely as bullshit companies like pets.com. You could argue that the recent correction in crypto is similar to the dot.com crash. The great thing about crashes is that they tend to purge the market of all the rubbish that has accumulated in it and what is left are the higher-quality assets that often emerge stronger.
Now we are ready to address the question - will crypto be as big as the internet? As of 2022, it is estimated there are 320 million crypto users. That growth was achieved in 14 years. The internet reached 320 million users in 2000 - 17 years after its inception showing that crypto adoption has been quicker than the internet. It is estimated that the total number of crypto users will conservatively reach 1 billion in 2030 - 22 years after its inception. The internet reached 1 billion in 2006 - 23 years after its inception. Shit. This means that crypto could be as big as the internet. That means that investing in Bitcoin now could be the same as investing in Amazon in 2001 at 50 cents (it is currently trading above $100!).
