Cryptocurrency in 2023

If the adoption of digital currencies, NFTs and DAOs is slow, it's not just the Terra/Luna problems, the Celsius collapse or the fraudulent FTX bankruptcy that are to blame. We need to look beyond the most hyped events that made 2022 the year of "the worst bear market in cryptocurrency." At the dawn of the new summer's timeline, it's best to learn the lessons needed to finally overcome fruitless prejudices and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

It has been a difficult year. The most enthusiastic fans of cryptocurrencies' ability to digitally transform saw their beliefs shattered in 2022. All the potential for improvement in a sclerotic, overly mediated and even exclusionary global financial system was crossed out by a series of major turmoil in the bitcoin market. The BTC price lost two-thirds of its value, and the total capitalization of digital assets suffered the same fate, losing more than $1.4 trillion in a year.

Technology News Outlook 2022

Yet, far from the turmoil of the stock market, public blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum and other decentralized networks continue to operate without the speculation, hacking or fraud that centralized players who interfere with protocols suffer. Neither the autonomy of the best-programmed smart contracts nor the reliability of cryptography has been questioned. However, the success of technological applications is not without human intervention and is measured by the quality experience that users receive.

You cannot grasp the immensity

It should not be forgotten that in the first months of 2022, the cryptocurrency market went down. Not because of a dark story about the disastrous financial management of the head of a well-known digital asset company that led to a contagious liquidity crisis. Rather, it was because the U.S. central bank's change in monetary strategy caused fresh capital injections into risky and profitable asset classes to dry up.

Even though the underlying value is the world's most secure decentralized computer network, the bitcoin concept has been usurped by new financial intermediaries, from trading platforms to cryptocurrencies.

The latter have created clusters of interdependent creditors and debtors around the cryptocurrency in a bogus system of seemingly endless economic growth and profit. Only to be painfully brought back to reality by a kind of law of financial gravity when these crypto players collapse like dominoes knuckles.

Again, let's not get into technological solutions, assuming that decentralized finance, famously DeFi, the real deal, i.e. decentralized, automated and "blockchain," will be the cure for all cryptocurrency ills.

DeFi also shone with the brilliance of its vulnerabilities: billions of dollars lost due to security flaws in so-called smart contracts, bugs weakening blockchain gateways, shameless scams built on promising innovation avenues...

The technologies popularized by bitcoin, which actually brings them all together, require more attention, understanding, standards, auditing and investment. It seems necessary to move beyond ideological debates and argumentative fights to take advantage of these tools for society.

Don't confuse weather with climate, noise with signal, etc.

There are many comments in social network discussions about the flawless functioning of the Bitcoin network in 2022, thanks to the uninterrupted adherence to the rules established by a certain Nakamoto in 2008.  It has been compared to a clockwork that works perfectly, but the time is not right and no one knows how to set it.

Of course, this is a very conventional analogy. Nevertheless, if you think about it, it seems fairer that bitcoin's clockwork works perfectly so far, but we prefer to ask people who can't read it.

The reason is that the general public is immersed in media noise around price and speculation. This gives a disproportionate amount of importance to the deal on the fringe between buyers and sellers over a very short period of time. It doesn't tell the whole story in terms of technical progress, financial independence or adoption.

Perhaps it is the deafening noise that detracts from the intelligent use of new crypto tools? Perhaps it is the interference created by the anti-cryptocurrency media and politicians focusing on the glaring details rather than the basics that is confusing? Perhaps this is the reason that leads some to compare bitcoin to Rube Goldberg's machine, which is useless to society and only amusing to the person who runs it?

Goldberg's machine, which, by the way, has enabled some $42 trillion in peer-to-peer, frictionless, delay-free, and borderless transfers.

You shouldn't stubbornly sing dithyrambs to cryptocurrencies when their prices skyrocket and blindly invest in them, nor should you prematurely announce the death of cryptocurrencies when prices fall to the floor without a biopsy of technology.

Getting back to basics: developers and followers

The cryptocurrency industry has demonstrated how difficult it is for players to responsibly pursue capital. Let's bet that those through whom cryptocurrency exists and grows will encourage the development of user-friendly interfaces in 2023, carrying use cases that satisfy real needs that are still unmet.

This would mean, among other things, less speculation on new tokens (and other "shit coins") and more focus on services. Cryptocurrency services to be deployed on blockchain because they really need its advantages (cross-border fluidity, no censorship, decentralized management).

After returning from a bitcoin conference in Ghana, Alex Gladstein, chief strategist at the Human Rights Foundation, recently told CoinDesk that he was "amazed at the number of bitcoin entrepreneurs and leaders from so many different countries." He met with people from rural areas of Cameroon, Congo, Somalia, and conflict zones. Based on these findings, Alex Gladstein believes that global adoption is likely to be the "number one event" this year.