We have seen a major transformation of the world from a local to a global environment for most of the world’s population in a very short period of time. Such a revelation has caused us to redefine many concepts and create new ones. Community and forums have gone through drastic changes in conception and definition over a very short span of time. A community and forums have both local and global definitions to accommodate this major shift in the world.

Social Media

The effect of social media on the development of societies and the world had been a major question without an answer for a long time. Now we are getting some answers and seeing some of the effects of technology, the internet, and social media. Social media is being blamed, at least partially, for the poor development of social skills of the Millennials. In additional there are other negative effects of computers and the internet on the Millennials, for example poor concentration, need for instant gratification, and weaker language skills. Social media has taken off with such force that people’s popularity is measured by the number of friends on Facebook, followers on Twitter, employment is affected by people’s popularity on LinkedIn and Instagram was boosted by the need to send messages and share pictures with the rest of the world at no cost.

Effects of the Internet on Community

Moving from a local community to a global world with many subcommunities has had far reaching effects. Both positive and negative effects have evolved and continue to evolve. New vocabulary, such as spam and cyberbullying and internet slang, such as BTW (by the way), have developed and perhaps GOH (gotten out of hand)! To add yet another acronym to the growing list (LOL — laugh out loud).

Netiquette was coined to refer to rules of good behavior and manors in online discussion groups. Chat sites and message boards have grown since then, but they always brought and bring people from diverse cultures and languages together from different contents around the world. However, it also caused many social barriers and new social problems, such as culture clashes between people from different parts of the world on controversial topics.

Lets Interact

Internet also created the potential for a place for the voice of the individual, minorities, and various “excluded groups” to express their opinions. Mainstream groups might still form the majority of the content on the internet, but they are not able to dominate and drown out the other content as much as they used to when there was no internet. This is good, bad, and mixed.

We have more say in how our society should act and more power for individuals to make or help bring about change for the good of everyone. TedTalks is one example of such empowering of people and spreading the individual’s messages in a powerful way. Hate speech, on the other hand, has to be reported and spam flagged. Then there are forums or communities with more mixed content.

Cryptocurrency’s Achilles Heel

Pizzazz, the lure of a better future, eloquence, a solution to a global problem, and easy access are the 5 main reasons why a community would follow any product. Let us now apply these criteria to cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency’s Achilles heel is user “unfriendliness”. We are all following cryptocurrency to see who and how this downfall will be solved if it ever is. Competing products are appearing all over the internet.

The Pizzazz, or je ne sais quoi, of a product like cryptocurrency is undeniable. It promises a better future through inclusion, decentralization of power, and protection of anonymity. Through the eloquence of its design and security is pure genius. It promises to remove the middleman, the extra fees associated with such a middleman, and to protect individual’s anonymity. However, cryptocurrency’s downfall is its user “unfriendliness”.

Cryptocurrency and Its Forums

Where does cryptocurrency fit in to all of this? Satoshi Nakamoto created cryptocurrency in a very specific, deliberate manner. It has a specific protocol and specific way of dealing with power. There is no leader or authority. Whatever decisions or changes need to made must be agreed upon by the actual investors in Bitcoin, both owners and miners alike. The same is true for altcoins, but to a lesser extent because altcoins have a company that launches them and has power in decisions of the altcoins’ future. However, Bitcoin’s “authority” relies on group consensus.

Nakamoto created a Forum where the Bitcoin community could work on and resolve the issues that would arise from Bitcoin. The Bitcoin Forum has developed a lot since its inception. It is basically a discussion group that posts Bitcoin issues and works towards consensus for solutions. Only once a consensus by all the member of the community is reached can that solution be implemented. Power is thus distributed as equally as possible. It turns out though that the miners, the people who own computers that run the blockchain, have the most power in the Bitcoin realm. In contrast, Eutherium’s power is still mainly in the hands of those who buy ether, Eutherium’s cryptocurrency.

The Conflict Theory

Anti-establishment and conflict theory have a voice on the internet. With cryptocurrency this voice is amplified. These groups mainly have a negative stigma and stereotyped. They are often linked with atheism. This too usually carries a negative stigma. While these labels often co-exist, it is not always accurate that they always exist together.

Conflict theory comes out of the work of Carl Marx. It states that society is always in a state of conflict because of limited resources. Power is maintained by consensus and conformity. Carl Marx perceived of a time where capitalism would play itself out to the degree that resources would no longer be limited and the next “natural” step would be socialism which would finally play itself to the limit and develop into the next “natural” step, communism. Finally the world would operate: “Each according to his ability, each according to his need” (Carl Marx). This very simply means that every person would be self-actualized because he or she would contribute actively in the way best suited to him or her and receive his or her needs in return. For instance, a person would manufacture shoes which would be distributed to everyone who needs shoes and receive food, clothing, housing, water, electricity etc. in return.

The question was then, why has capitalism not run its natural course. The answer is that those in power seek to protect their power by almost any means. Keeping resources limited and access to resources limited is their main weapon in maintaining power.

Anti-establishment is a term that was a term used by the British magazine, New Statesman, in 1958. The term anti-establishment refers to a view or belief that is in opposition of the conventional views and/or beliefs of that time period. America popularized anti-establishment with the peaceful protest against sending soldiers to the Vietnam war.

Relevance to Cryptocurrency

More recently, however, anti-establishment and atheism have been linked with the development and the investors in Bitcoin the first ever cryptocurrency and altcoins, all the cryptocurrencies following Bitcoin. What impact does this have on Bitcoin, its legitimacy, trust in cryptocurrency, and is it a positive or negative for cryptocurrency?

Internet is taking the first steps into a new future of cryptocurrency. If a more user-friendly interface can be developed for the average user and the average user moves into the cryptocurrency space, then we will start to have answers to these cryptic cryptocurrency questions (pun intended- LOL).