The international cryptocurrency market enjoyed a few golden years prior to 2017, but the shine has started to wear off as people began to realize the bubble effect being created by disproportional media hype.

For a little while there, people were making glorious profit from their cryptocurrency investments. Like all booms however, it didn’t take too long before there was a rush, and not everyone who was rushing to release an ICO was really qualified to do so.

Not that there’s an official qualification required, but that more than a few of those ICOs were being issued by people with no real solid background in either finance or technology. A string of embarrassing cryptocurrency failures later, and the whole of the market, including top performers like Bitcoin and Ethereum, was paying the price for the misadventures of a few.

That tends to happen when people see vast fortunes wiped out due to unguided speculation on unproved technology. It’s this kind of problem that slammed the brakes on the cryptocurrency growth rate.

This could actually be a fantastic opportunity

Figuring out the real value of a cryptocurrency is not something that can easily be done. It’s not like investing in stocks or shares where there are easy metrics to base calculations on. Much of what makes a particular cryptocurrency valuable is the market’s opinion of it.

The best way to go forward is research carefully what blockchain sectors a currency is focusing on, and anticipate which sectors seem to have the best long term growth potential.

If you can accurately predict where the demand is likely to originate from, then you are setting yourself in the best position for when a surge in investment comes along. This is the real money making potential of investment in blockchain based currencies, and it is far better to get in early than to wait for the market to move in ahead of you.

With this type of investment, diversification is not as important as it is in most other investment types, but still you should be cautious of putting all your eggs in one basket.

Spreading the risk carefully over a handful of options will give you some protection against short term falls, and also means you have something on hand to trade so you can take advantage of short term gains. Investing in cryptocurrency is not difficult, it just requires common sense and a bit of research to make sure you’re backing a technology that is going places.

There has been quite a bit of resistance within banking circles and certain governments to the growth of blockchain based currencies, and considerable negative press has been launched which could be regarded as a propaganda campaign intended to undermine the public’s faith in decentralized currency markets.

Even though the face value of the major cryptocurrencies has fallen during the past year, these currencies are far from keeling over. In fact, they are still going strong and won’t be that easy to get rid of. Worldwide economies will need to adjust to the presence of decentralized competition, and this is a good thing because it provides people with an alternative to the traditional economic system while simultaneously not excluding them from it.

At the extreme end of the anti-crypto movement, there are murmurings of the desire to exclude people from the option of using cryptocurrency. Given the nature of cryptocurrency, however, it’s very unlikely that bans will prove effective.

Countries which have already banned cryptocurrency include Algeria, Bolivia, Cambodia, Ecuador, Egypt, Morocco, Nepal, and Pakistan. Implicit bans exist in Bangladesh, China (excluding Hong Kong), Colombia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan.

Countries where cryptocurrency is legal but there is a banking prohibition or heavy restrictions include Canada, India, Jordan, Thailand (easing), and Vietnam.

The problem for these countries is that the currencies exist on the Internet. There is no enforceable way for any individual territory to prevent citizens from participating in this economy.

Bans are pointless and set countries back

A citizen of Algeria wishing to speculate in cryptocurrency merely needs to ensure that none of his or her trades are executed inside the borders of Algeria. Traveling outside the country is one option, but VPN and proxy technology make it unnecessary. It is just too easy to thwart bans, making it pointless to enact them.

The serious downside for countries that ban cryptocurrency is that this denies local businesses the opportunity to participate in the lucrative blockchain industry, consequently stifling innovation and research. This sets those countries back, where other countries around them are able to make advances.

Right now that’s not a very big problem, but in the future the results will be easy to see. Those who are surging forward with blockchain innovation now will be very far ahead of the territories which don’t allow use of cryptocurrency (an essential unit of payment needed for blockchain applications).

No matter where you live, you should be able to invest in this technology. The artificially created bear market won’t last, and this has to be a great time to buy into crypto while the prices are holding steady.

Anna Friedman, CEO of Nasdaq, has spoken up with some interesting predictions at the 2019 World Economic Forum a few days ago. Some of these predictions are downright chilling in their implications: a major push forward for globalization and the mainstreaming of cryptocurrency to become a global currency used by everyone instead of cash.

Unless you’re an extreme masochist and sociopath, or somebody who could wield true authority in such a dystopian future, this is not a vision you would hope to see come true.

Such a scenario would allow a few individuals to control the financial freedom of literally everyone else. Fortunately this is extremely unlikely to occur for many reasons.

Most world leaders act against globalization

No matter what they may say, most politicians, even those with their noses deep in the corporate trough, are not in favor of a globalized world.

Supporting a One World Government would mean surrendering their grasp on power, as well as losing the lucrative income from taxing imports and restricting trade by imposing harsh tariffs against regimes they don’t favor.

Citizens won’t allow it

Even if political leaders embraced a New World Order, the people they govern would resist it with force. There is too much religious precedent and too many science fiction works depicting the end result of a globalized currency under central control for anyone in their right mind to allow their government overseers to make it a possibility.

If government authorities gain the power to restrict the freedom of individuals to participate in free trade, according to rules decided by themselves alone, then the very notion of freedom would be completely undermined (the opposite of what globalism promises) and there could be no way to prevent the violent and costly revolution that would rise up in consequence of the threat to global freedom.

It’s not needed

The strongest argument against the emergence of this global currency is that it’s not needed.

The dollar is already performing this function, as virtually all legitimate international trade, other than the trade in currencies, is conducted in US Dollars, except when it is trade between two members of the European Union, when the trade is more likely to involve an exchange of Euros for goods or services.

Cryptocurrency offers a simple and efficient way to conduct international trade, but it’s by no means necessary, and because of that, unlikely to become common.

It would be hugely expensive

To create a global currency would involve a lot of expense. If it were a paper and coin currency, who would put up the funds for the minting of it? Which countries would get the honor of minting it? How many fights would break out over the unfairness of one country getting more currency minting rights than another?

Then there’s cryptocurrency. Just because this has no physical form does not mean it can be produced without cost. It takes a lot of computer processing power to mine cryptocurrency, and that requires very large amounts of electrical power.

Quite simply there is not enough electricity being generated anywhere in the world to provide sufficient power to create sufficient units of cryptocurrency for each person in the world.

There are multiple cryptocurrencies

Can we really expect all these diverse cryptocurrencies to just meekly roll over and play dead if it is decided there should be a single global cryptocurrency (one ring to rule them all) when that notion is in direct opposition to the spirit upon which cryptocurrency was founded?

Notwithstanding that the owners of the currencies would lose fortunes as a result, all existing cryptocurrency owners favor decentralization and preach a message of resistance to authoritarian control. It’s like expecting swashbuckling pirates to bow before the King.

If there ever is a global currency, it won’t be crypto

No matter how many benefits of cryptocurrency we could list, there is just no way to convince the average man in the street that it’s going to be good for him to give up all his paper banknotes and coins, and put his faith in a computer generated and controlled currency.

Naysayers will cite things like electromagnetic pulses, solar flares, and even comets as good reasons to fear a system that is purely electronic. It’s a miracle that the people even allow their money to be stored in bank vaults, considering how ridiculously simple it is to wipe out (intentionally or otherwise) all evidence of their ownership of the cash.

Blockchain is actually safer than the current system, but it’s quite a bit more complicated to convince people of this fact. There’s also far more money invested in technologies to protect physical currency in comparison to the amount invested in the protection of any blockchain, so no matter how safe it may actually be, there is no way to persuade anyone that it’s safer than cash.

Cryptocurrency Still Has a Purpose

Just because crypto is not the great cash replacement that will allow the establishment of a cashless society doesn’t mean it has no place in our world. This currency can still be used as an investment medium and still has value. It can provide many benefits, especially with regard to powering blockchain expansion.

There hasn’t been the enthusiastic embrace of cryptocurrency that was expected to occur. By and large, the average consumer is still ignorant of cryptocurrency, and those who have heard of it tend to fear it.

Those who are intelligent enough to see the potential of cryptocurrency as an investment can make valuable gains if they choose wisely. But to treat cryptocurrency as a currency has no real advantage for the average person, especially since there are almost no legitimate retail outlets where you can spend it.