The Crypto Winter. Where Do We Go From Here?

2018 started off with a high rush and then quickly faded to a deep, dark, pit of despair as Bitcoin rose to meteoric heights only to fall from the sky like Icarus. Since then, the year was a rocky sea of ups and downs; a market that seemed desperate and lost, investors running for the hills, failed attempts to put bitcoin in the mainstream through the stock exchange, and the SEC seemingly incapable of making up it’s mind on ICO’s-and the IRS seeming equally incompetent at defining what constitutes taxable income, capital gains, or even which form to use.

       After a slow recovery, another storm tanks the market, but it recovers adequately, only to be thrown against the rocks again this week. With more fear-mongering and nay-saying from JP Morgan’s head of cross-management unit, John Normand. Normand said “Bitcoin has fared poorly as a store of value asset in the past decade….gold was a better hedge than Bitcoin since July 2010″ JP Morgan is only one of half a dozen large financial institutions trying to put more nails into bitcoin’s (and crypto in general) coffin. While I’m fairly confident that crypto isn’t going to disappear, or be relegated to a niche market as some speculators have opined, I do think a lot of big changes are coming, and are needed in order to ensure crypto’s survival in the future.

       So, where do we go from here? I’m not just an investor, I’m a miner, so regardless, I’m going to go with my gut and try to mine coins I think have a future. I will also happily take assets I think are going to tank and throw up on an exchange and trade them for some Tron or Ethereum Classic, or grab a few more of my favorite up-and-coming cryptos like HORIZEN or EGEM.

       Many people are taking to investing in stake coins and throwing them up on large stake pools hoping to grow an enormous HODL nest egg for once the frost thaws and spring arrives. Of course, Masternodes are another big goto for people with the hash or the money to get the necessary deposit and secure a VPS. Like the giant pink chicken of death that they are, ICO’s have become a liability, and a big NO for anyone who isn’t willing to lose a bundle on the large majority that fail or bail. But, Staking and Masternodes are also huge risks. Many staking coins are disappearing, some are being revived by community members who want their millions of coins to mean something, but many are just fading away into obscurity and death. Masternode scams are also a huge problem, and their future is just as bleak. 

       As a Libertarian, I would prefer to see cryptocurrencies mature and be successful completely devoid of government intervention, but in reality, it seems more likely that in order for crypto to gain ‘mass adoption’, some government regulation is going to have to occur to calm the fears of investors and potential adopters alike. Another big factor that is a detriment to mass adoption is the complicated nature of blockchain. Syncing wallets, making sure you input the proper address and payment ID, navigating exchanges, etc. I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I still get nervous every time I send coins anywhere-fearing that they will disappear into the ether, never to be seen again. 


       There are some companies out there that are bridging the gap between crypto and fiat, by creating debit payment cards that allow you to pay for items in a store and in the currency you need, using their native coin (or their coin and the gold standard coins like btc, eth, and ltc. Some groups are working on integrating their blockchain and currency into ATM machines, so as to allow you to purchase or exchange their coin with other pairs and of course fiat.

       Honestly, the best strategy is one that involves that least risk, for the biggest payoff, so If you can mine, and your electricity is cheap, that’s a great place to be. If you want more passive income, try buying or fauceting some POS coins and just let them sit. The same is true for Masternode coins. They provide a passive income, but require a larger buy-in, and require you to setup and pay for a VPS to earn your rewards.

So, I’ll give you a short list of places to check out and you can dive in—or wade in slowly. It’s up tp you.

POS POOLS:

https://stakecube.net/

https://simplepospool.com/

https://www.ecostakepool.com/

https://btcpop.co/home.php

BTCpop.co and Stakecube.net both have faucets to allow you to gain a small of coins to get you staking. Many pos coins can be purchased very cheaply on the exchanges.

MASTERNODE SITES:

https://masternodes.online/

https://masternodes.pro/statistics

https://masternode.live/

https://masternodecap.com/

https://mnprofits.com/

https://nodesupply.com/

https://www.nodestop.com/



       Regardless of where you decide to go, rest assured that while this crypto winter will be long, it will get better, and when it ends, the market will be stronger and less cluttered. So choose wisely, as many of the coins you get may become extinct in the near future, so remember to keep tabs on your coins, and if a coin looks destined for the landfill, sell it off quick, if you think it’s going to be around for the long haul, HODL, HODL, HODL!

While it’s been 10 years since the release of bitcoin 1.0, the crypto market as we know it is still in its infancy. It’s going to suffer the same bubble as we experienced in the dot.com bubble of the late 90′s early 2000′s. The internet is still here, and so too shall cryptocurrencies in the future.

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