Let’s see where we go against the grain, guys. What’s your hot take, which makes other crypto enthusiasts hit the Reply button with a “Listen, you” attitude?

Personally, I’d say:

Most cryptocurrencies are not useful from a “currency” point of view

I don’t see most big-name cryptocurrencies working as a fiat substitute for everyday transactions. Using BTC or ETH to buy a house, car, pay off your student loans is one thing – but no one would go grocery shopping when the $20 in BTC they paid today might be $100 next week.

Same with vendors on the other side. Why accept the transactions in crypto, when it can crash and be worth x10 less next week?

For everyday transaction we need cryptocurrencies, which are as less volatile as possible, and there are barely any of those. A stablecoin can just get deppeged.

IMO BTC will keep on as a store of value (the usual digital gold comparison), ETH as a tech vehicle and its gas (usual digital oil comparison), and the other altcoins, memecoins and the like will be just highly volatile assets to make risky investments with.

Cryptocurrencies can be used to enhance and work alongside the fiat system, but can’t substitute it in everyday life.

Crypto doesn’t help the little guy against the rich (anymore)

This claim is based on the fact that from their very conception, both Proof of Work and Proof of Stake, on a large enough scale are way more easily attainable by people with the required funds already on hand.

In the current situation, if it’s a PoW coin you need the money for mining rigs and to cover the electricity costs (which are very high in most countries). This means that the optimal “miner” is an entity, which can afford a bunch of rigs situated in possibly a foreign country with cheap electricity, so only very wealthy individuals or certain business can be optimal at mining.

With PoS, the more tokens you have, the larger your weight, so to speak, and that again puts more power into the hands of people or business who can just buy a large amount at once and muscle out the little guys.

In a way, the system suffers from its own success. Maybe it worked for the little guy before the first bull runs, but now outsiders took notice, and because there are no barriers to entry (as is intended), they just used their resources to work within the system and grow large enough to affect it. When millionaires, billionaires and titanic institutions have x10k your BTC/ETH, it easy for them to control the market.

We can’t grow without centralized institutions stepping in

What we need to prevent another FTX, or Luna, and increase trust in the public which will get them to see crypto as not just a scam in the waiting, is regulations which hold such people accountable. But for such regulations to exist, there need to be entities which enforce them on the international and national levels.

Meaning Uncle Sam, the EU, China, the IMF and company – they need to create and impose on exchanges laws, which dictate that if they want to act like banks, they need to cover the same requirements, like guaranteeing client deposits up to a certain sum.

DeFi is well and good, but you can’t both have a Wild West, and blame the people, who decry it as lawless and unsafe, that they don’t want to participate and bring in their funds. The public wants safety and safety means centralized authority, whether you like it or not.

TL:DR

Most cryptocurrencies are not useful from a “currency” point of view Crypto doesn’t help the little guy against the rich (anymore) We can’t grow without centralized institutions stepping in

What say you?