Written by Brian Langis 

For someone who has lived through the dotcom bubble, the madness currently unfolding in the crypto space is just plain breathtaking. It is quite awe inspiring to see people make the exact same mistakes they made 17 years ago. Of course, today’s investors are likely different people who, for the most part, have not lived through the dotcom bubble. A lot of people who never bought own an investment are fueling this. They also have no experience whatsoever with losing money in investments. And we know that people are risk-averse. That means people are more sensitive to losing money than they are to gains.

geralt / Pixabay

Back in 1999 and 2000, the stock market went crazy about anything related to the internet. Everyone was taking part — institutions, high net worth investors and your local retail guy who worked at Walmart or drove a cab. As a matter of fact, cab drivers handed out tips of the next hot IPO to their riders. Most IPOs only needed a business idea that was vaguely related to the internet to achieve success.

Bitcoin is really about freedom. Bitcoin is the battle of ideas. It forces the issue of whether people should be as free in their handling of money as they are in their handling of speech or religion. I’ve been following the Bitcoin story from a distance for a couple years. My attitude on Bitcoin has shifted over time. At first, I dismissed it. I didn’t see the value in it. Like so many other people, I laughed at it. I ignored it. I never thought it had a chance. But it survived. It thrived. It exploded. Many people like to ignore the irrefutable fact that Bitcoin is still here. The more I read on the subject of Bitcoin and the blockchain the more I realize how it’s a beautiful idea. But it still doesn’t change the fact that you can lose money if you buy cryptocurrencies or Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

At this stage Bitcoin’s nature is still very speculative. What’s very interesting is the technology behind the bitcoin, the blockchain. The blockchain technology is more than an evolution. It’s a way of permanently recording and sharing data and transactions without any central authority. The blockchain is a massive open decentralized digital ledger. It is more reliable and secure than a regular centralized ledger.  It cuts the middleman out (brokers, bankers, exchanges etc…). Blockchains can be used to verify records, prove rights, store identities, and digitally certify almost anything including physical and non-physical assets. And again, you don’t need banks, governments, policymakers, or companies in the middle. I don’t know what is going to happen to Bitcoin but the blockchain is here to stay. It’s already being tested in different industries like finance. Major U.S. banks  like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs just completed a test managed by blockchain startup Axoni to kept track of the swaps contracts after they were executed, recording things like amendments or termination of the deals, stock splits and dividends, and achieved a “100 percent success rate,” Axoni said in a statement.