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My outfit -- 'IndiaMikeZulu' -- talk about altcoins versus Bitcoin all the time: the future of established altcoins is looking very very good. One reason is what we term 'cascade': Bitcoin's seg wit implementation remains months away, but check the unconfirmed transactions!!

https://blockchain.info/charts/mempool-count?timespan=all

Four of the biggest spikes in unconfirmed transactions have happened in just the last five weeks, and the last spike blasted from about 70K to way over 100K.

This means that as the financial crisis, which is growing steadily worse, sends capital to cryptographic currencies, more and more of that capital will 'cascade' down from Bitcoin, down through the Top Ten, and further down the charts.

[Note Two]

Note Two

Meanwhile, a new phase has cropped up between just-speculative-trading and ordinary-folks-using-cryptos-as-ordinary-money. It is a response to the deterioration of fiat currencies. The idea of the Winklevosses's ETF is an example of this 'Wall-Street HODLing,' this 'Chinese-Elite HODLing.'
That is, people who aren't citizens of Planet Krypto are buying cryptos, but they are HODLing them rather than using them as money.

So, there's lots to discuss about whom we might approach to adopt Groestl.



Note Three

Here's a first draft of What Are The Various Hurdles to Crypto Adoption?

Introduction: Important Note: if you have limited human and financial resources, you must allocate those resources very very carefully. It's much better – I think – to have one tiny tiny project advancing well than to have a number that are not advancing well.


A: the technical hurdle: computer folk scored an historical bull's eye with the Internet because people had to use it, so geeks could arrogantly refuse to provide quality technical assistance.

But people don't have to use cryptographic currencies; so if we are serious about getting a million new Groestl Coin wallets set up in the next decade, we must focus on providing good simple instructions, and on-going technical assistance. Of course, every community talks about this; but the reality is that it's 99.9% just talk.


B: 'political'/everyone-is-crazy-busy: governments and banks did a thorough job in 2013-14 of giving cryptos a bad name; and anyway, trying to simply explain cryptos to someone who has never heard of cryptos is a difficult task.

And everyone in the western world is already insanely busy.

Therefore, people may think cryptos are cool, but that just not the same as adopting them. There's a lot of work to do here, figuring out whom we should approach to adopt, and how we should approach those folks.

One thing is worth noting: crypto adoption is roughly split between 'functional' and 'political.' Certain businesses – Kaspersky comes to mind – have every reason in the world to adopt crypto-currencies. This is a business use-case; and for these adopters, a crypto is a payment method pure and simple, and such adopters want cryptos to be embedded in the existing banking-system. These folks are pro-regulatory.

On the other hand, the political guys – libertarians like me – hope that cryptos will bring the banking system to its knees.
So, if you are going to explain cryptos to a prospective adopter, figure out first why they want to adopt cryptos.


C: regulations: what's clear in Australia, and I suppose much of the world, is that GoverBank nods its head wisely about how good and necessary cryptos/blockchains are; but makes sure that the regulatory environment is so uncertain that businesses are simply afraid to try cryptos. Now, we can't change the laws; but we can learn what basic information people need to have.

[I have been ridiculed for the suggestion that crypto communities have 'national chapters' – 'We're all pseudonymous! And the Internet makes the world one big village!'

Rubbish!

In every community it would be helpful if the members knew who else was working in that same country (whether the members are pseudonymous or not. I'm public.). Why? Because every country has different conditions and regulations.]


D: one of the odd things we've learned, readers, is how insanely anti-crypto bullion lovers are. I do understand their basic argument. May I suggest that crypto-bullion trades should be a fundamental activity in communities? Of course, it's P2P; but us IndiaMikeZulu guys are enthusiastic about P2P.
Note that there's a lot to learn about the regulations – in each country -- regarding buying and mailing physical bullion.

Could we have a 'ticker' that show the GRS-silver price?



E: The Big OPSEC Picture: security for everyday Internet use is becoming more and more difficult. So, us crypto geeks could offer ordinary folks and small businesses a 'package' of basic Internet security with a Groestl Coin wallet 'embedded' in the package.

Think for a moment about your OPSEC. Do you have things like the password on your laptop and the recovery details of your email as part of the same back-up system that you use to secure 2FAs and passwords? I bet you do!

[Note One:]

Note One:

If you belong to the community of a 1.0 crypto, you must understand that ignoring the 2.0s – talking nonsense like 'ICOs always eventually go to zero!' – is just not going to work. 95% of all cryptos are dead or dying today; and the 2.0s are clustering at the top of the charts.

[Groestl is a pretty complex '1.0'. Perhaps we could label it a '1.5'? ]

We need to evaluate ourselves. For example, the communities of the 'dark' coins, like XMR and Bytecoin, are unfriendly. The assumption is that, if you don't have the technical skills to work with these complex instruments (I don't . . . ), the community couldn't care less. So, a 2.0 = potential 'currency function' + some technical feature(s).

How can we compete with them? Firstly, we note how very solid GRS's 'base' seems: it has fine daily volume, and its price is not dwindling – and at three years old, it's established.

And before we go further, let's note that I expect an enormous amount of capital will flow into cryptos when the GFC really begins to roll – perhaps tens and tens of billions.
So, we concentrate on 'currency function.' That should include developing a merchant network.

Now, the project(s) we run can be tiny. We just need to prove that we can do it, and we'll gain experience by doing it.*

Conclusion: to survive, a crypto must advance from the immature 'speculative-trading' phase to the mature 'currency function' phase.

Note Two next week.

*IndiaMikeZulu has been devving on cryptos non-stop since late 2013. We've had the awful experience of having one after another 'go down' under us – because we stayed with the communities because we wanted to understand how communities work, and not just make a buck and bolt. We've learned an enormous amount.