Introduction

SInce the invention of Bitcoin about 10 years ago, cryptocurrencies has seen a boom both in application, number and popularity. As a product of blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies have disrupted the traditional financial institution, even threatening to replace them. From a very small beginning with little value, Bitcoin and Ethereum for example, has grown to surpass the worth of our most expensive fiat. Crypocurrencies are now used to replace some tradional financial transactions and still threathen to disrupt industries such as health, education, governance, insurance etc, to mention just a few.

All of us crypto enthusiasts earn for a future where cryptocurrencies completely replace the traditional centralized financial systems. We earn for the freedom from censroship which cryptos deliver. We love all the other positive sides of being able to do transactions with cryptocurrencies. However, we must accept that some current technilcal challenges need to be overcome if we are to achieve complete mass adoption of this monetary system. In this article, I will discuss one that has scarely most investors aware from cryptocurrencies - volatility.

What is Volatility

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To explain it in a term that would be easily undertood by non-technical readers, volatility is the price movement of cryptocurrencies or fiat in the market. These price movement is usually contributed to by market conditions such as trading volume of a cryptocurrency, predictions by crypto analysts, and other factors. When compared with fiat, cryptocurrencies are really highly volatile. The price movement could be sudden and unexpected within a very short period of time. There could be a few positives to the highly volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, but the challenges brought about by this feature seem to be larger. Here are just three of them:

Why is volatility such a big deal

1.. Doubts as to whether cryptocurrencies are actually real currencies: Many crypto critics will quickly tell you that a currency should be a stable store of value - like fiat. Investors for example see to be more comfortable investing in fiat, gold or other more stable units because it is possible to fairly, more accurately predict price movements. Hence, they are a little sure that if they store their asset in fiat, they not going to loose a large part of it suddenly. No one wants to put their goods in a ship that seems to struggle even in calm waters. While fiat, gold and other places where investros store value are not solid-rock steady, volatility of cryptocurrencies are so high that it is presently almost a big risk to store value in it over a long period of time.

2.. challenges with accurate transfer of value: When we talk about mass adoption, we think about how cryptocurrencies can be used in everyday transactions such as while shopping, paying for taxi, booking flight ticket, and other daily uses. While fiat has been used for years in everyday transactions, cryptocurrencies are usually left out of the question because again - its volatility is too high. So imagine where the value of $2 paid by a shopper drops to $! 3 minutes after the shop has paid and left. Then imagine the amount of loss it will be for shopping malls, taxis and other day-to-day services that collect payments from users. It then becomes very difficult to accurately transfer value from person to person in large scale using crypto payments. Little wonder than a large percentage of businesses still are not accepting bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies as payment methods. A few that are doing so, quickly change the payments received into fiat. Even at that, there is still some loss in exchanging the crypto to fiat using any exchange platform. Hence, this is limiting the rate of mass adoption in day to day financial transactions.

3.. ROI are not guaranteed: Even the most seasoned predictions have failed because it is very difficult to accurately predict cryptocurrency price movements. So an investor is not sure to some reasonable degree offered by fiat investment, that there would be profit investing in cryptos. Hence, investments are usually left in stock during bear markets that may last anywere from a few days to several months of even years. No investor wants to put their assests into some terrible gambling. Everyone understands that you do business for profit or loss. However, no one wants to put their hard-earned wealth into something they are not going to predict profit to any reasonable degree of accuracy.

There are still other difficulties created by cryptocurrency volatility which are not discussed in this article. The 3 dscussed above are really bottlenecks that can be cleared if there is a way to make cryptocurrencies more stable in volatile, less volatile. Although volatility and many other challenges make cryptocurrencies less acceptable generally, the future still very bright. For example, most countries has the potential to break the centrol control of financial institutions in the nearest future and enhance global payments.

The future of decentralized financial systems and global payments is now

Beyond all the many challenges we can talk about, cryptocurrencies are a real revolution which governments have fought hard to eliminate. Think about the potential of grabbing control of financial regulations from central banks in each country to the common man on the street. Person-to-person payments are now a reality and even evolving big thanks to cryptocurrencies. In Nigeria and Africa, there is the Western Union Money Transfer Service. It is the approved banking way to move money beyond the shores of the country. Huge taxes are impossed on money movement so much that by the time it gets to the receiver, a lot of vale has been lost. But now, I easily send cryptocurrencies to my sister in Cameroon without even steeping out of my room. The ease with which we transfer cryptos to people everywhere has tuened doubters into believers.

I write sponsored reviews and easily get paid by organizations as far as China. Both the contractor and the remote worker are happy that payments are done without stress. So the ease with with cryptocurrencies make enhance global person-to-person payments will always make them popular and give them an edge over fiat payment processing across borders. Another great thing happening right now is that more countries are making cryptocurrencies legal and putting in work to create awareness for them. The crypto space in Nigeria is something really nice.

There is a bright outlook for cryptocurrencies in Nigeria - elsewhere.

I have been into cryptocurrencies in the last 4 years and it is really great to see the progress made in this country so far. To start with, cryptocurrencies are not banned here. They are legal and banks accept to work with crypto exchange platforms to make it easy to change Naira to any crypto. Many exchange platforms are springing up and adding to existing platforms. Here are some positives for the crypto space in Nigeria

1.. Several P-2-P exchange platforms for cryptos: The local black market is booming and getting better by the day. For example, there are hundreds of traders on @airhawk-exchange who are will pay Naira for any many cryptos including Steem and SBD. So its not really hard to buy or sell cryptos direct for Naira.

2.. Other exchange platforms: There are sevral other platforms that buy allow you to exchange fiat without linking you to buyers directly. Some other ones combine the two features. They include Luno, Roqqu, Remittano, etc

3.. Government approval: The current government in Nigeria are not hostile to cryptocurrencies. Instead, there are recent talks of supporting the growth of cryptocurrencies and creating more awaresness through workshops, seminars and engaging the public sector in other ways. We are really optimistic to see other government projects proposed to help encourage more use of cryptocurrencies in Nigeria

Conclusion

Cryptocurrencies are not with out their own challenges. Every other new technology also suffer setbacks. But the evolution and growth of cryptocurrencies are fast. Developers are working day and night to bring solutions to known challenges including volatility. I see a future of decentralized payments. I see a future of seamless crypto-powered payments across borders. I see mass adoption, and I am happy to work and contribute significantly to the crypto project through the Steemit platform. When we all take concrete, and solid steps to promote cryptocurrencies, then mass adoption would happen sooner than later.

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