Holding on patiently for revolution

It is a little bit interesting in the cryptospace where holding hodling is such a spoken about and meme-ified concept yet, it is in a a community of perhaps the most impatient people on earth. There are so many instant gratification disorders and tendencies that it is almost laughable. A patient crypto-enthusiast is pretty much an oxymoron. However, it is a new industry by almost anyone's standard and the blockchain itself is in its infancy, hardly even crawling let alone ready to stand on its own two feet. Soon though, right?

What people seem to forget as they impatiently look for change is that, change can change things drastically. This is both good and bad depending on who the changes affect. There is a status quo in this world for a reason and that is because it benefits some people and changing that status quo is going to interrupt the flow of their benefits, often for the worse.

We see this at Steem quite clearly when it comes to some of the early users who benefited well for being early adopters and, swimming in a large pool with lots of food and very little competition. Some made large gains (and still benefit) from their early position, while some others could be struggling now. They may blame bidbots, the change in the vote weighting, new users, Dapps or some other thing but, it is all just change. Some adapted well, some didn't, some kept SP for influence, some didn't.

Even though changes are inevitable, it isn't always easy to accept when one suffers at the hands of change even though one might have been benefiting at the detriment of others earlier. For some, it feels like a slap in the face while others feel victimized as their entitlements are removed. Entitlement on Steem is in plague proportions.

But, change is just change, it is going to happen regardless of who enacts it and it is unpredictable no matter how it is planned. Not all change is good and, not all change is going to benefit all people. Sometimes one really wants something to change but it just looks like it never will, it is as if all the forces of the world couldn't shift the circumstances but, everything changes.

The greatest empires in history have all crumbled through a series of small changes that led to larger and larger until a flood sweeps away what seemed so solid a moment before. This happens even faster with technologies and faster still with new technologies. Often, the people who are benefiting from the status quo may make changes to further improve their position without realizing they are actually eroding it piece by piece.

A patient observer with a wide perspective could potentially see all the pieces dislodge or fall into place and make a prediction on what was going to happen while someone furiously in the thick of it could miss the forest from the trees completely. While one works frantically they could think another who sits watching for a time has lost their drive but, they could just be taking stock, chipping away at the foundations of status quo and when the trickle starts, they have facilitated the flood by loosening bricks in the wall, creating weak points for the change to break through rather than be stopped.

Sometimes those who think they are on the most solid ground don't realise that just under the surface, a cavern has opened up, ready to swallow them whole when the surface finally gives way. To the unsuspecting, it is sheer surprise but for those who are paying attention, it was inevitable.

When it comes to the cryptospace with currencies and blockchains, the change is going to sweep through very fast in relative terms and those who felt that their fiat lives were stable are going to either jump on the wave or be swallowed. I remember family and friends in the early 90s saying things like, I will never have a need for a mobile phone, and ridiculing those who had one. Do they have the need now? You bet.

This goes for a lot of the ubiquitous technology that surrounds us and it will be the same for blockchains. SMTs will hopefully feature predominantly as the online world that was once seen as a fad by many evolves further into a tokenized and decentralized market for all information and all of the new possibilities and revenue streams that brings. Those who do not adjust with the shift will likely suffer either direct or opportunity cost loss but, essentially all will be forced aboard eventually.

There are going to be a lot of surprises, there are going to be risks and drawbacks, some things that looked so promising will fail while others overlooked will unexpectedly be gamechangers. Those that are here now are potentially the luckiest people on earth in the future, they just don't know it yet because not all the changes have been made, not all the weaknesses of the status quo exploited, not all of the trickles joined together to become a flood that tears down the walls between.

Those that benefit from status quo spread FUD for anything that they believe threatens them, they try to undermine change before it has a chance to take root but, once the ideas have entered into the imaginations of the many, change can no longer be repressed, it just takes time and work.

Be patient, not inactive.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]