old hat
You know something’s here to stay when it’s no longer the-new-kid-on-the-block and transcends to ‘old hat’. It happens to social media mechanisms, it happens to pop stars, it happens to fads & fashions, and it’s happened to bitcoin.
Fans, supporters, currency-holders and speculators of the long-standing cryptocurrency have undoubtedly been dancing in their virtual streets after its price jumped more than 20% to $550, and it’ll probably be $600 by the time you’re reading this. Fuelled by a rumoured lack of trust in the Chinese investment market, the currency appears to have become an outlet and safe-haven for frustrated savers & traders, and Beijing authorities, in an unusually authoritarian response (not!) have allegedly banned banks from dealing in #bitcoin. Notwithstanding this, more than 90% of #bitcoin transactions are conducted on two Chinese exchanges: Huobi and OKCoin.
Admittedly, this volatility isn’t really going to do anything for its acceptance as a reliable international payment system but the key thing to note is that the altcoin no longer has the field to itself. Champions & pioneers of cryptocurrencies have started to gravitate to another system, Ethereum and its ‘ether’ tokens. The behemoths of corporate America – JP Morgan, Citibank, IBM & Microsoft – are already experimenting with ether-based online markets and ‘smart contracts’ to the extent that the ‘value’ of an ether has jumped from a dollar in January to around fourteen bucks today. Klondike ‘ere we come…
Two other things appear to also have had their day, the first being good old email. Last year, some 74 trillion missives from Nigerian Princes and snake-oil pedlars were sent at the rate of 2.4 million a second, and because we’re a polite bunch of social animals, the vast majority get opened and read. Apparently, the upshot is that we are each spending the equivalent of 36 days a year immersed in, at best work-interruption and, at worst, work-avoidance, as 40% of these have been deemed ‘personal’!
No surprise then that the smart companies are fighting back: VW closes its email servers down at the stroke of 5.30pm (so their employees can get on with some proper emissions-testing work?) and French giant, Atos, is on track to ban email and replace it with some form of internal social network. With me being ahead of the game I’m already on ‘Slack’ dontchaknow and believe me, the comment same sh*t, different view has seldom been more pertinent. The means of communication doesn’t replace our propensity to gossip, whinge, muck-about and look for something more interesting to do than work!
The other thing that’s had its day (and is obviously therefore here to stay) is the format of this Soapbox blog and my own carlbeetham.com website. Yes, both my followers will be delighted to know that its undergoing a major revamp over the next couple of weeks and will be relaunched, in light of me never having an original thought or opinion, under the moniker of secondhandviews.com. I bet you just can’t wait… Now, quick, back to work, the boss is looking!
