Everyone loves drama, but has blockchain really helped anyone so far?
How many articles criticizing blockchain perhaps you have read in 2010? How many devastating Reddit confessions perhaps you have seen up to now? Is blockchain really overrated? We don’t think so. While people look for drama and the media gives them exactly what they want, technology doesn’t really care much about all that nonsense. The objective of every technology is to boost the quality of life and this is exactly why it’s only fair to judge it by the results. Positive results, in particular.
Prosperity vs Wealth
Blockchain is often associated with big money and big profits, and some may argue that the decentralized nature of this tech doesn’t go well with each one of these Best bitcoin wallet millionaires appearing. The luckiest individuals of all are likely the early adopters, and there’s anyone among them who caught our attention.
Jered Kenna started his crypto journey really early and was once quite successful until 2010 when he lost 800 BTC after his computer was erased. However, that didn’t crush Jered’s spirit and he didn’t turn his back on crypto. Later, his mobile account and email got hacked and he lost a significant sum of money (millions of dollars in value, he says). Devastated, although not crushed, he was able to overcome the incident and is currently a businessman and uses BTC for many his transactions and keeps promoting cryptocurrencies.
Leaving ‘the lucky ones’aside, have there been any real-world success stories?
There’s undoubtedly that China knows a thing or two about fast development and hard work. The Chinese government is famous for their experiments in rural aspects of the country to be able to fight poverty. Haosheng, a tiny village with just a little more than 60 people, is located alongside the Wenchang Satellite Launch Base. The Wenchang City government decided to develop aerospace vegetable cultivation, green farming, cultural tourism, and implement blockchain technologies to be able to prove the energy of innovations.
Using aerospace technology as Haosheng’s signature line, the federal government decided to give visitors from all around the world an opportunity to witness the cultivation of agricultural product in aerospace breeding and checking out “aerospace cuisine” themselves. Currently, the village includes a “blockchain restaurant” that tracks the whole process from planting fruits and vegetables to serving the table with centrally processed data. The theory behind this really is that by utilizing blockchain technology and uniting the farming community and the finish buyers under just one blockchain, everybody can monitor improvement and set up a universal payment system that’ll work fine for several participants.
Obviously, the blockchain has played just a small role in Haosheng’s success, and it was just just the beginning. In only one year the village showed an incredible growth in wealth and became a type village for the area. The price of schooling has finally become acceptable and the individuals of the village have gradually moved toward being truly a well-off society.
When Fiat Becomes Useless
Venezuela’s 741% inflation rate is practically unbelievable and their currency — the bolivar — is literally worth nothing. At the existing stage of the nationwide downfall, Venezuelans are looking for better alternatives like USD. However, the federal government has the final word as it pertains to exchanges so the citizens are banned to get as much USD as they want, which resulted in the emergence of the USD black market. Obviously, it didn’t play by fair rules, prices went up, and the people turned to bitcoin.
Currently, Venezuelans are depending on crypto because they put it to use for purchasing Amazon gift cards and later on, ordering food and basic necessities from trusted online retailers in the US who ship them to South America.
Individuals are even using bitcoins to buy medicine. In the current economic situation, there’s no chance to fight diseases with bolivars.
As among the local crypto traders said, “Bitcoin is a way of rebelling against the system.”
Venezuela isn’t the only real country who managed to find ‘salvation’in crypto. When coping with the consequences of the economic crisis, Cyprus’and Greek banks closed down for a month, and people started buying bitcoins. The Bitcoin volume in Europe shot up 286% after the Cyprus bank closures, and in Greece particularly, BTC purchases increased by 79%.
Getting Personal
Bitcoin Babe, Michaela Juric, made a confession that bitcoin actually saved her life. Within an interview with The Project TV, she admitted that the first purpose of buying her first crypto was not that delightful: “I was extremely depressed and the complete reason for me personally purchasing that bitcoin was to put it to use to get drugs off the darknet market, and the purpose of those drugs was to overdose and commit suicide.” However, she was able to overcome the depression and even made a fortune on trading crypto.
Some achievements mightn’t be so mind-blowing but all of them count.
Answering CCN’s question about Bitcoin’s influence on his life, Juan Garavaglia — blockchain entrepreneur — confessed that it actually taught him an essential lesson:
“It is a personal question and requires a personal answer. I never saved any profit my life. Savings was like stealing from yourself. With Bitcoins, I do not wish to just spend them, I’m saving them. I’m not thinking just how can I spend them, I’m thinking just how can I save them and get more. It seems like, in my own case, it’s ways to do savings. I have not done this in my own life. I spend money and find ways to produce more. Now I’m trying to produce more but to save it. When I had money at a share exchange and industry went down 2%, I’d feel lots of pain, but now when Bitcoin drops 25% — it is a process. I’m still keeping my bitcoins. For me, it changed the way I approach money.”
Conclusion
Here and there we read stories of men and women who thought they’d lost it all, and then suddenly crypto and blockchain came within their lives as a certain revelation and changed the guidelines of the game. Sometimes, these stories may appear only a little naive (or even fake) but let’s admit it — we all need a positive motivation to begin changing the planet for the better.
Blockchain offers endless possibilities in every aspects of our life, from fighting with fake drugs to saving one country’s economy. Blockchain charity funds and social projects might be only testing the waters at this time and the vast majority of startups are dedicated to making profit the very first place but one thing is certain — the technology is unquestionably here to stay. And when the right people make their fortune, they’ll eventually start giving it back once again to society.
Have You Got Your Own Blockchain Story?
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