Web3 Daily

View Original

Bitcoin is still following the stock market… but why?

Isn't Bitcoin meant to be its own thing?

A whole new monetary system, completely detached from the legacy financial world?

Well, yes - in theory.

It might not feel like it, but right now, Bitcoin is still in its infancy.

And investors are treating it like a tech stock (because in many ways, it is).

BTC is a monetary networking technology - just like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter are social networking technologies.

A social network will start to scale when it's adopted into the social lives of its users.

Once habits are formed around a network's functions → the harder they are to replace → the more staying power they have.

E.g. We're not big Facebook users, but we won't delete it.

Why? Because we still find value in FB Groups, and most of our friends still send out party invites via FB Events.

(They've got their hooks in).

And just like social networks aim to become fixtures in our social lives, BTC aims to become a fixture in our spending habits.

...but it's just not there yet.

Bitcoin needs to be able to function as a decentralized, bankless global payments system.

(It's done that).

It then needs to be widely adopted and accepted everywhere - whether you're using it to buy a house, or a gallon of milk at your local corner store.

(It hasn't done that, yet).

The theory is this: if Bitcoin can achieve these two things, it will become its own beast, and detach from the legacy financial system.

Until then, many investors are simply approaching it as a speculative investment on a new technology.

And tech investments live (by and large) on the stock market.

So if tech stocks crash, Bitcoin tends to follow.

READ MORE