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Today’s Shifting Gears Driving Tomorrow’s Mass Crypto Adoption

Today’s Shifting Gears Driving Tomorrow’s Mass Crypto Adoption

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Three major shifts will lead to crypto and blockchain adoption worldwide, and they have already started reshaping our world.

There’s a revolution happening. We’re moving toward a world with a massive reduction in trust in centralized institutions and ways of doing things.

There are several concurrent shifts happening right now, including a shift away from centralized governing bodies — encompassing a lack of trust in middlemen, governments and even the authority figures hired to keep us safe — as well as a loss of trust in social media platforms, which are now more aggressively censoring content.

The second is a shift from the old financial world into a new, 24/7 digital economy, in which individuals are empowered to control their own financial future, not having to rely on a centralized party or bank. Lastly, we’re moving from the physical world to the digital.

Blockchain and crypto, in conjunction with COVID-19, are acting as massive accelerants to these shifts. Millennials and Generation Z are taking control of what they’re doing so they won’t have to rely on anybody else, slowly turning Wall Street and governments on their heads. All of this forms a perfect storm. Let’s look at each shift individually.

Shift 1: The lack of trust in governments and corporations

Many people don’t like the government’s response to COVID-19. Here in the United States, many see what’s happening overseas, how certain countries are implementing digital IDs that allow them to see if you’ve had COVID-19 or not, as an intrusion of privacy. Talk of immunity passports and body temperature checkpoints is further deteriorating trust in centralized institutions. Different countries have different laws and culture, and in the U.S., it’s going to be very difficult to implement such measures, because this is “the land of the free.”

Blockchain and crypto apps providing privacy solutions will help mass adoption. The Brave Browser, for example, provides increased privacy while simultaneously giving users a seamless experience. The browser integrates crypto and rewards for completing an action, which usually boils down to watching an advertisement. I bet a lot of people signing up for Brave don’t know much about tokens. They just like the privacy aspect. But once they realize they can earn crypto by surfing the web, I bet they learn about crypto. With that said, privacy coins also provide solutions to the censorship problems people face today, and therefore will help mass adoption.

When people lose trust in the system, they want to express these feelings. But trust in corporations like social media outlets is also waning, as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all censored users. People see how these centralized organizations have the power to censor free speech, and soon they’ll see how crypto and blockchain provide solutions.

When it comes to preserving free speech, DLive, the largest live streaming community on the blockchain, empowers people to say whatever they’d like without worrying about censorship. While we need something that’s censorship-resistant, I believe we also need mechanisms in place to monitor and hide things like calls to violence — that is, such platforms need consensus and community-based governing mechanisms. This is a challenge for the industry to consider when it comes to the road to mass adoption.

Shift 2: The end of traditional financial markets

Traditional financial markets will have to adapt to the decentralized way of doing things, and they are already investing research and development money into such ideas. Big companies implementing blockchain will go a long way toward mass adoption. For instance, CashApp had solutions and applications for people to manage money, and the company seamlessly integrated Bitcoin (BTC) into that.

PayPal might be moving toward offering buy options for Bitcoin if recent reports are true, therefore adding the option for its tremendously large user base. Facebook is developing its own token, Libra. Tech giants like this will only increase the speed with which crypto and blockchain is adopted.

Shift 3: The physical world becomes digital 

While global political and social trends will play a role in the mass adoption of blockchain, so too will the tokenization of trading cards and video games. Since blockchain is able to manage digital scarcity in an immutable way, digital trading cards are possible in a way like never before. If somebody says there are only 100 of these digital cards that will ever exist, and you can put that on an immutable ledger or blockchain to verify that is the case, you can’t have any issues with people creating fakes. That’s a big deal! 

Enjin represents an ecosystem of integrated blockchain software products that enables developers to integrate crypto tokens into apps and games. Topps Digital Garbage Pail Kids, which are digital trading cards based on crypto personalities and issued on the WAX blockchain, sold out in just around 28 hours. Before that, CryptoKitties was popular. It was about breeding and trading cute kitties, and people didn’t need to know anything about blockchain. We’re already seeing some of these trading cards for sale on eBay. There’s a marketplace for this in a big way.

Moreover, people are open-minded today when it comes to owning a share in a painting or other pieces of art. I don’t think that impulse has existed until recently. But, now the world is open to having fractional ownership in things in the form of tokens.

The road to mass adoption

When it comes to mass adoption, you want to get to a place where people don’t even know that they’re using blockchain and crypto. You don’t even want to lead a pitch for this technology with those terms, because they can almost deter people. With the internet, users don’t need to understand the Internet Protocol, for instance. To be able to use the internet, they can just hit, say, Amazon, without knowing the technology behind it. They just know it works, because it gets them to the site. That sort of approach is the road to mass adoption for blockchain.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Jeremy Born is the principal founder and CEO of CoinGenius, a data and analytics platform for crypto traders, a data and analytics platform for crypto traders which hosts weekly panels called “Genius Wednesday,” as well as quarterly events on crypto and blockchain.

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Survey Shows Declining Concerns Among Americans About COVID-19

Survey Shows Declining Concerns Among Americans About COVID-19

A new survey reveals that only 20% of Americans view covid-19 as "a major threat"…

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Survey Shows Declining Concerns Among Americans About COVID-19

A new survey reveals that only 20% of Americans view covid-19 as "a major threat" to the health of the US population - a sharp decline from a high of 67% in July 2020.

(SARMDY/Shutterstock)

What's more, the Pew Research Center survey conducted from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11 showed that just 10% of Americans are concerned that they will  catch the disease and require hospitalization.

"This data represents a low ebb of public concern about the virus that reached its height in the summer and fall of 2020, when as many as two-thirds of Americans viewed COVID-19 as a major threat to public health," reads the report, which was published March 7.

According to the survey, half of the participants understand the significance of researchers and healthcare providers in understanding and treating long COVID - however 27% of participants consider this issue less important, while 22% of Americans are unaware of long COVID.

What's more, while Democrats were far more worried than Republicans in the past, that gap has narrowed significantly.

"In the pandemic’s first year, Democrats were routinely about 40 points more likely than Republicans to view the coronavirus as a major threat to the health of the U.S. population. This gap has waned as overall levels of concern have fallen," reads the report.

More via the Epoch Times;

The survey found that three in ten Democrats under 50 have received an updated COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 66 percent of Democrats ages 65 and older.

Moreover, 66 percent of Democrats ages 65 and older have received the updated COVID-19 vaccine, while only 24 percent of Republicans ages 65 and older have done so.

“This 42-point partisan gap is much wider now than at other points since the start of the outbreak. For instance, in August 2021, 93 percent of older Democrats and 78 percent of older Republicans said they had received all the shots needed to be fully vaccinated (a 15-point gap),” it noted.

COVID-19 No Longer an Emergency

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued its updated recommendations for the virus, which no longer require people to stay home for five days after testing positive for COVID-19.

The updated guidance recommends that people who contracted a respiratory virus stay home, and they can resume normal activities when their symptoms improve overall and their fever subsides for 24 hours without medication.

“We still must use the commonsense solutions we know work to protect ourselves and others from serious illness from respiratory viruses, this includes vaccination, treatment, and staying home when we get sick,” CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement.

The CDC said that while the virus remains a threat, it is now less likely to cause severe illness because of widespread immunity and improved tools to prevent and treat the disease.

Importantly, states and countries that have already adjusted recommended isolation times have not seen increased hospitalizations or deaths related to COVID-19,” it stated.

The federal government suspended its free at-home COVID-19 test program on March 8, according to a website set up by the government, following a decrease in COVID-19-related hospitalizations.

According to the CDC, hospitalization rates for COVID-19 and influenza diseases remain “elevated” but are decreasing in some parts of the United States.

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/10/2024 - 22:45

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International

Rand Paul Teases Senate GOP Leader Run – Musk Says “I Would Support”

Rand Paul Teases Senate GOP Leader Run – Musk Says "I Would Support"

Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul on Friday hinted that he may jump…

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Rand Paul Teases Senate GOP Leader Run - Musk Says "I Would Support"

Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul on Friday hinted that he may jump into the race to become the next Senate GOP leader, and Elon Musk was quick to support the idea. Republicans must find a successor for periodically malfunctioning Mitch McConnell, who recently announced he'll step down in November, though intending to keep his Senate seat until his term ends in January 2027, when he'd be within weeks of turning 86. 

So far, the announced field consists of two quintessential establishment types: John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota. While John Barrasso's name had been thrown around as one of "The Three Johns" considered top contenders, the Wyoming senator on Tuesday said he'll instead seek the number two slot as party whip. 

Paul used X to tease his potential bid for the position which -- if the GOP takes back the upper chamber in November -- could graduate from Minority Leader to Majority Leader. He started by telling his 5.1 million followers he'd had lots of people asking him about his interest in running...

...then followed up with a poll in which he predictably annihilated Cornyn and Thune, taking a 96% share as of Friday night, with the other two below 2% each. 

Elon Musk was quick to back the idea of Paul as GOP leader, while daring Cornyn and Thune to follow Paul's lead by throwing their names out for consideration by the Twitter-verse X-verse. 

Paul has been a stalwart opponent of security-state mass surveillance, foreign interventionism -- to include shoveling billions of dollars into the proxy war in Ukraine -- and out-of-control spending in general. He demonstrated the latter passion on the Senate floor this week as he ridiculed the latest kick-the-can spending package:   

In February, Paul used Senate rules to force his colleagues into a grueling Super Bowl weekend of votes, as he worked to derail a $95 billion foreign aid bill. "I think we should stay here as long as it takes,” said Paul. “If it takes a week or a month, I’ll force them to stay here to discuss why they think the border of Ukraine is more important than the US border.”

Don't expect a Majority Leader Paul to ditch the filibuster -- he's been a hardy user of the legislative delay tactic. In 2013, he spoke for 13 hours to fight the nomination of John Brennan as CIA director. In 2015, he orated for 10-and-a-half-hours to oppose extension of the Patriot Act

Rand Paul amid his 10 1/2 hour filibuster in 2015

Among the general public, Paul is probably best known as Capitol Hill's chief tormentor of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease during the Covid-19 pandemic. Paul says the evidence indicates the virus emerged from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology. He's accused Fauci and other members of the US government public health apparatus of evading questions about their funding of the Chinese lab's "gain of function" research, which takes natural viruses and morphs them into something more dangerous. Paul has pointedly said that Fauci committed perjury in congressional hearings and that he belongs in jail "without question."   

Musk is neither the only nor the first noteworthy figure to back Paul for party leader. Just hours after McConnell announced his upcoming step-down from leadership, independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr voiced his support: 

In a testament to the extent to which the establishment recoils at the libertarian-minded Paul, mainstream media outlets -- which have been quick to report on other developments in the majority leader race -- pretended not to notice that Paul had signaled his interest in the job. More than 24 hours after Paul's test-the-waters tweet-fest began, not a single major outlet had brought it to the attention of their audience. 

That may be his strongest endorsement yet. 

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/10/2024 - 20:25

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Government

The Great Replacement Loophole: Illegal Immigrants Score 5-Year Work Benefit While “Waiting” For Deporation, Asylum

The Great Replacement Loophole: Illegal Immigrants Score 5-Year Work Benefit While "Waiting" For Deporation, Asylum

Over the past several…

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The Great Replacement Loophole: Illegal Immigrants Score 5-Year Work Benefit While "Waiting" For Deporation, Asylum

Over the past several months we've pointed out that there has  been zero job creation for native-born workers since the summer of 2018...

... and that since Joe Biden was sworn into office, most of the post-pandemic job gains the administration continuously brags about have gone foreign-born (read immigrants, mostly illegal ones) workers.

And while the left might find this data almost as verboten as FBI crime statistics - as it directly supports the so-called "great replacement theory" we're not supposed to discuss - it also coincides with record numbers of illegal crossings into the United States under Biden.

In short, the Biden administration opened the floodgates, 10 million illegal immigrants poured into the country, and most of the post-pandemic "jobs recovery" went to foreign-born workers, of which illegal immigrants represent the largest chunk.

Asylum seekers from Venezuela await work permits on June 28, 2023 (via the Chicago Tribune)

'But Tyler, illegal immigrants can't possibly work in the United States whilst awaiting their asylum hearings,' one might hear from the peanut gallery. On the contrary: ever since Biden reversed a key aspect of Trump's labor policies, all illegal immigrants - even those awaiting deportation proceedings - have been given carte blanche to work while awaiting said proceedings for up to five years...

... something which even Elon Musk was shocked to learn.

Which leads us to another question: recall that the primary concern for the Biden admin for much of 2022 and 2023 was soaring prices, i.e., relentless inflation in general, and rising wages in particular, which in turn prompted even Goldman to admit two years ago that the diabolical wage-price spiral had been unleashed in the US (diabolical, because nothing absent a major economic shock, read recession or depression, can short-circuit it once it is in place).

Well, there is one other thing that can break the wage-price spiral loop: a flood of ultra-cheap illegal immigrant workers. But don't take our word for it: here is Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself during his February 60 Minutes interview:

PELLEY: Why was immigration important?

POWELL: Because, you know, immigrants come in, and they tend to work at a rate that is at or above that for non-immigrants. Immigrants who come to the country tend to be in the workforce at a slightly higher level than native Americans do. But that's largely because of the age difference. They tend to skew younger.

PELLEY: Why is immigration so important to the economy?

POWELL: Well, first of all, immigration policy is not the Fed's job. The immigration policy of the United States is really important and really much under discussion right now, and that's none of our business. We don't set immigration policy. We don't comment on it.

I will say, over time, though, the U.S. economy has benefited from immigration. And, frankly, just in the last, year a big part of the story of the labor market coming back into better balance is immigration returning to levels that were more typical of the pre-pandemic era.

PELLEY: The country needed the workers.

POWELL: It did. And so, that's what's been happening.

Translation: Immigrants work hard, and Americans are lazy. But much more importantly, since illegal immigrants will work for any pay, and since Biden's Department of Homeland Security, via its Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency, has made it so illegal immigrants can work in the US perfectly legally for up to 5 years (if not more), one can argue that the flood of illegals through the southern border has been the primary reason why inflation - or rather mostly wage inflation, that all too critical component of the wage-price spiral  - has moderated in in the past year, when the US labor market suddenly found itself flooded with millions of perfectly eligible workers, who just also happen to be illegal immigrants and thus have zero wage bargaining options.

None of this is to suggest that the relentless flood of immigrants into the US is not also driven by voting and census concerns - something Elon Musk has been pounding the table on in recent weeks, and has gone so far to call it "the biggest corruption of American democracy in the 21st century", but in retrospect, one can also argue that the only modest success the Biden admin has had in the past year - namely bringing inflation down from a torrid 9% annual rate to "only" 3% - has also been due to the millions of illegals he's imported into the country.

We would be remiss if we didn't also note that this so often carries catastrophic short-term consequences for the social fabric of the country (the Laken Riley fiasco being only the latest example), not to mention the far more dire long-term consequences for the future of the US - chief among them the trillions of dollars in debt the US will need to incur to pay for all those new illegal immigrants Democrat voters and low-paid workers. This is on top of the labor revolution that will kick in once AI leads to mass layoffs among high-paying, white-collar jobs, after which all those newly laid off native-born workers hoping to trade down to lower paying (if available) jobs will discover that hardened criminals from Honduras or Guatemala have already taken them, all thanks to Joe Biden.

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/10/2024 - 19:15

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