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As of December 2019, Bitcoin price index averaged $7,180, while WHO raised the first signals of the COVID-19 crisis in Wuhan, China. What started as a slow (and ignorable) bushfire has taught us heavy lessons, setting even higher new levels of the new normal’ we know.
Doubtlessly, every continent is on its knees, the economies crumbling, and people dreading handling cash. And where are the cryptocurrencies?. The world must rethink how we survive after this crisis. That’s a must. People’s presence and the fiat they hold are not welcome – not at all with COVID-19. Your banker probably sees you as the next culprit, though they wish no ill will.
Crypto is our saviour. When Kenya was initially shaking with the first cases of COVID-19, the echo of The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Mutahi Kagwe, went,” Stay at home, keep off crowded places and keep off handling cash. Don’t treat cash normally, if you can, pay via Mpesa.” Mpesa is virtual money legally recognized globally and derived from fiat value channeled into mobile devices.
If Mpesa can, then crypto can, and even more efficiently. Ajit Tripathi, CoinDesk’s columnist, who also doubles as an executive director for Binance, views the COVID-19 crisis as a more ample opportunity for policy influencers to rethink their stances. Ajit notes that central banks have always been cautious regarding holding Crypto-assets- a position that should change.
In Germany alone, over 40 banks have sought for licensing to enter into Cryptocurrencies. The Crypto economy is not different from the convention. Indeed, more robust, and its digital equivalent is none other than Bitcoin, followed by Altcoins.
A month before the UK slipped into lockdowns- an interesting paper was released, synoptically aimed at censoring out banking bureaucracies. The main sentiment was; Crypto is the sure bullet to get money to the citizens.
On his fourth point, Ajit believes in the explorative effect of economies to push entrepreneurs towards “the magic money.” It comes with the wake of losing war with advanced money laundering techniques failing conventional banking systems.
Crypto Betting
The gaming industry is on an uptrend, surprising receiving more traffic globally amidst the waves of COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across continents. Naturally, conventional economic downturns are countered by even heavier explorative human thinking- towards safe havens.
One such fast-growing platform is AlphaPlay, which is powered by the blockchain. Players are betting on actual cryptocurrency rates in 5 minutes intervals. If the bet wins, player doubling his money. New users can try the platform with no registration using 1000$ demo money.
Right now the platform is holding a token sale for the Alpha Gambling loyalty program. Holders of ALPHA ERC 20 tokens are earning 6% of the platform’s turnover, while affiliates are getting a 4% share by inviting other players, or just for playing with friends. The lion’s share goes to the winners, who are banking 90% of the turnover. Transparency from smart contracts facilitates the proportional sharing of profits among the participants.
Increased Demand and Interest
From when COVID-19 started it’s ripple effects, ripping down businesses and economies, Bitcoin interest has surprisingly hiked. Stephen O’Neal, via Cointelegraph, says that though BTC is not the best in value-stability, it’s way more stable than most economies right now.
Few notable economies recording best highs in BTC demand for almost an entire month are Argentina, Morocco, Venezuela, and Chile. Similar interests have been reported with centralized crypto exchanges like Kraken. They’ve had to hire more hands due to spike-ups in customer interests and online traffic. O’neil further shares, Crypto-values initially plunged in March. That’s normal under distress for economies to shift into sells, stall at lowest values before bouncing back into buys. Jeff Dorman, a CIO for Arca, affirmed similar market patterns for BTC.
Unique angles are resurfacing from developing nations regarding crypto, and it’s demand.
What’s the trend like?
LocalBitcoins recorded all-time highs at the close of March and early April 2020, notably in Chile, Morocco, and Venezuela. The situation is pretty unique to Venezuela. BTC offers them a safe-haven and blends with the Petro-coin, a cryptocurrency rolled out by President Maduro.
Post COVID-19 Crypto-sphere
Humanity has always remained resilient. Things will change, but the so-referred to new normal will reshape the way we live. Can central banks entirely ditch fiat for crypto? In the future, humanity needs a robust, trustworthy technology to steer the way we make payments. Blockchain is the highest probable solution to the whole circus.
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