Ask around and you’ll find that crypto participants are, on the whole, tremendously glad to see the back of 2022.

This is not to say that 2023 might not also bring shocks, anything can happen, right now, but the year just passed was so relentlessly catastrophic that it can only be a good thing that it’s over and done with, and we can hope for at least a fractionally more relaxing period.

After such a crashing train wreck of a year, it’s no surprise to find that overall crypto sentiment is muted, while naysayers are emboldened.

Although not so many people will outright proclaim that crypto is dead, or something similarly emphatic, as they were prone to do during previous market collapses, you will certainly find musings as to whether or not crypto actually serves any real-world purpose.

And though, in this way, it’s not stated directly, the implication is that if crypto doesn’t yet have a purpose, or isn’t set to in the foreseeable future, then it may as well be dead, and will eventually expire.

An Overlooked Reality

Of the reasons to expect that crypto is now here to stay, one practical, and perhaps prosaic reality is sometimes overlooked: if crypto can exist and it works, on a technical level, then why would we not choose to have it at our disposal? Or to put it another way, crypto has been built, so what reason can there be to expend energy on taking it away again?

A parallel could be drawn with early iterations of the web. One could travel back to the nascent web1 period and observe that (at that moment) web technology had limited numbers of users, and, seemingly, little in the way of real-world connections or impact.

What’s more, you could easily have picked out negative behavior at play, just as you can in the current crypto world. Even early on, in extremely niche web forums, anti-social exchanges, hostility, personal abuse, and raging arguments were far more commonplace than they are in real life.

Witnessing all this, it would have been perfectly reasonable to surmise that the web, or at least the social element of the web, was isolated, perhaps damaging and, as a result, might cease to exist in any significant way.

That outcome, of course, didn’t come to pass, and one reason is that if enough people are sitting at computers all day and computer-based networks exist, meaning the capacity for computer-based transactions (social, commercial, academic, and so on) is simply present and available, then it would be strange if users did not, eventually, make use of such networks.

Put simply, if something can be built, works, and is widely accessible, then it probably will, in the end, be widely accessed.

All of which apply to cryptocurrencies. In fact, the social and tech landscapes have changed radically in favor of crypto, in that we now regard it as perfectly normal to conduct much of our business, including personal interactions that wouldn't previously have been possible, on computers.

What Does Crypto Enable?

Taking the history of social media as instructive, if being able to interact socially from our computers led to many people choosing to do precisely that, then we should ask what cryptocurrencies allow us to do over the web, which people might then choose to do.

Now that digital currencies, that you can own without permission from a central authority, are available, why would a significant number of people choose, over time, to go without them, particularly as their network effects become more significant?

If you can have the option of transferring funds instantly, to anyone, anywhere, on a self-managed, peer-to-peer basis, would it not be natural for growing numbers of people to make use of that option?

If you can limit your use of banking institutions to the personal extent that you prefer, will there not be many people who would like to enact such preferences? Is there reason to expect that banks can inspire loyalty among younger generations for more traditional services?

And, if you can own non-fungible digital assets, which are built with utility and have monetary value, would many people choose to cut themselves off from such items even if growing numbers of users around the world take advantage of this new tech?

Check out the recent FMLS22 session on "Forex and Crypto Trends 2023."

Alternative Systems

Entire alternative systems are being built out, which take money, finance, art, collectibles, ticketing, and more, outside the boundaries of traditional structures. These networks are in place and can be utilized, and what’s more, they move incredibly rapidly: a week in crypto feels like a month or more in traditional fields and activity is frenetic.

Add to this the fact that with each passing generation, transacting online and without intermediaries becomes increasingly intuitive, while the traditional financial system appears, by comparison with crypto, gated, inflexible, and lacking in immediate opportunity.

Keeping in mind this perception of crypto, with its accessibility, openness, and sense of expansion, it seems unlikely that more users will not be drawn to these novel alternative systems.

Again, a comparison with social media seems relevant. Users might turn their backs on particular platforms (or blockchains) and migrate to other competitors, but the greater ecosystem is buzzing with activity, and shunning the entire edifice becomes improbable.