Major Advancements, Bad News; Why so much negative press?

During the early stages of Bitcoin and Blockchain, there was much press coverage. A fair mixture of good and bad news. Bitcoin and its underlying technology were both hailed as the reinvention of finance and classed as a “fad” at the same time. A trend that all cryptocurrency advocates will be all to familiar with. However, during the past 2-3 years (2016-2018/19), with the significant rise in value, there has been people mining and err…not mining cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency scams, mainstream media coverage, useless ICO’s, and many get rich quick schemes. All these, along with wall street style pump and dump market manipulation, and the coverage has almost totally been changed to now almost vilify all changes we are seeing in and emerging from the industry.

FUD and FOMO in the cryptospace; the type which would normally be reserved to a handful of sceptical newbie investors, on some random BitcoinTalk thread, has worked its way into the mainstream and been picked up by everyday people. People who have little understanding of the industries and are instead turned to what some believe is a “get rick quick” avenue, in a modern day gold rush mentality.

With news on regulation, taxation, banning of Google and Facebook ads, even the outlaw of cryptocurrencies by some governments altogether, its more than fair to say that the FUD and FOMO has officially turned into bad news. Our question is, how is the good news getting out there?

We don’t think it would be fair to say that there is more bad things going on than good. There are many technological advancements and implications, which some of these emerging technologies and companies in the blockchain industry are doing great with. In fact for the most part, mainstream growth is still hindered by the mass adoption and mass implementation problems the industry is facing. This is an issue I have highlighted in the past, in one of my other articles, “When Mass Adoption: The 21 Million Bitcoin Question”, in issue 2 of the ICO Crowd magazine, back in October 2017.

The fact that the crypto/blockchain industry is also having to often re-post, retweet and talk about the “bad news” adds to the confusion. To be honest recently it seems as though some major news platforms spend more time sensationalising the bad, rather than the good. Is it actually that hard to find the good news? Or is it that same sensationalism and drive for new traffic that is causing things to happen this way?

During the heights of 2017, many crypto/tech blogs and publications rose to become the big voices in crypto, both regionally and world wide. Some of these have now gone on to become major crypto news outlets. Many of these publications still employ multiple writers, as well as publishing guest articles from prominent crypto advocates. These articles of course should be fair and unbiased, as the industry is of course all about transparency. However, would it hurt for these publications to put “good news” to the forefront, rather than headline hunting and posting click bait titles with negative contentions?

We’re sure this would show things in a much better light and help to steer the industry from the negative overlook that it gets from those that simply do not understand. I mean, if people were lambasted with “good headlines” in the same way they are with Plus 500 trading ads and bear market news, then wouldn’t people naturally want to be involved?

The funny thing is that, every good experienced trader I have spoken to will tell you…”Cut out the noise…”, when looking for new investment and trading opportunities. Should we not then logically be applying this to all angles when looking at the news coming out of the industry. I mean the whole decentralized space was never supposed to be filtered, but when headlines are constructed to gain readership with bad news, are we not defeating the purpose? Maybe we need to include the upshot, if any, of potentially bad news. Personally I believe we need to cover more good news in general, as the industry has somehow (although mostly for the successes of blockchain and bitcoin) almost become a total market watch.

If we truly want Blockchain and cryptocurrencies adopted by the masses, then it’s about time that we give them reasons to, other than just “you can make money”. We have long stood by our comments of “Forget money, get more bitcoin”. This seems to be a sentiment shared by only long-term advocates and those who truly understand the “flippening”. People such as Anthony Pompalino and his iconic phrase “Long Bitcoin, short the bankers”, have been pushing this message for ages! If you actually ever read the Bitcoin white paper, then you should understand things are far from cryptic. So again, we ask is the aim to get rich or change the game? Both maybe?! If get rich is your answer then, unfortunately you are probably part of the problem.

There are four things that must be considered before we are to see any real mass adoption:

1. Education – Teaching the masses about blockchain and with blockchain based applications.
2. Infrastructure – EASY TO USE (at least to the level of current popular applications)…Applications, blockchains and tokens being built and utilized across nation building infrastructures e.g. Logistics, Finance, Communication
3. Media – As the title for this article suggests, we need the correct media strategies, to support and push the GOOD news to the top of the pile.
4. Social Impact – The social impact of new developments is key to public needs, outreach and perception. Social media can be used to grow interest in a project or the industry if used in the right way. Yes, you could look at it like the social networks are trying to shut down crypto, or…you could also look at it like, the content that moved these platforms to take the stances they have could actually just be part of the noise.

Again, these are just some of the main issues surrounding the main stage, but when it comes down to it, we need to talk less about the problems that the industry is facing. We need to talk more about the wonderful and exciting projects that are spouting and being put through actual use cases every day.

The industry has its voice, at yet another peak and pivotal moment, and there will be more. However, instead of just shouting blockchain from the rooftops, let’s concentrate on the ease of use and implementation, in comparison to counterpart legacy systems.