With everyone getting their government stimulus check, there is plenty of cash out there to grab. People are throwing their money at everything. They are buying and putting it into real estate, collectibles, the stock market and a large group of people are putting into cryptocurrency. Why? What is this craze and what is driving it? Is it due exclusively to the government stimulus, or is there something else going on here? To answer that we need to rewind about 15 years…
Remember when Facebook came out and it was a newer more efficient way to socialize? You could chat and share pictures with loved ones across the country and you were able to create an online social profile to help define who you were to the rest of the world. Over the next few years Facebook got so popular and diverse in their services that companies and news organizations started using it. After a while Facebook started to make big impacts on the way we communicate, and was actually changing the way the media worked fundamentally. Fast forward to today and Facebook has fundamentally changed the way people get their news.
Now we can’t give Facebook all the credit. There were other social media companies who drove this change, but Facebook was the first to really force competition in that industry. Additionally Facebook is still trying to push on into other industries. They among others, such as Spacex are launching satellite constellations to try and decentralize the internet entirely. Although the media industry has drastically changed and will likely perpetuate its formation for decades to come, there are other industries out there that are changing due to new and advanced technology. 
Peloton has made noticeable impacts to gym memberships, and Zoom has been instrumental in telling businesses how much office space they really need. Even now “Big Pharma” is having to change and adjust to the growing cannabis industry. These cannabis companies are getting so big and popular that they are even starting to be publicly traded. In fact the stock market has changed so much that it is barely recognizable from the on our parents used, and all fingers point to this change in trading as the next big industry to get a technological shake down.
Coinbase hit the market running yesterday. I have used this company to manage my various concurrency for years. In my opinion this will be the next Facebook. Not because it will change social media but because like Facebook, it will shake down it’s industry… the banking industry, and it will change everything we know about money. Now that is a bold statement I know, and i’m sure it wont necessarily be Coinbase that becomes king but they are for sure forcing the competition like Facebook did. Even my bank has sent me app notifications about trading crypto. If major banks are into crypto it is here to stay and they are fighting to stay relevant just like the media did with Facebook.
What’s next? I don’t know. All any of us can do is hang on to the wild ride to financial redefinition we are all about to embark on. Hopefully we all learned a lot about how dangerous these transitions are when it claimed the media. The world is still healing from that one. All we can do is speculate. Will it come for the pharmaceutical industry? There is plenty of movement with the decriminalization of drugs, and vaccines with the whole vaxer vs. antivaxer.
One industry that will eventually be given the technological shake down is government and business. Already Spacex has voiced it interest in becoming it’s own city. This is an ever growing topic for business such as the seasteading institute and even some new crypto companies. Nevada is considering allowing “smart cities” that would be able to be their own county. Las Vegas is already one of the world’s greatest cities because it allowed people to do what other states restricted. Imagine if they allowed companies to turn more of their useless desert into more of the world’s greatest attraction? 
Its hard to imagine what technology will bring our future. Yes, there will be parts that are bad, but I think there will be good too. We just need to learn our lessons as each industry is shaken so we can keep the world intact for our children.
-Brandon