What worries me the most is that for 95% of all the bitcoin startups, VCs are just throwing huge sums of $$$ at them, but they are all basically creating "solutions looking for problems" instead of solving real needs. Gee, where have I seen and lived through that before? Oh yes, the DotComBomb of 2000. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Indeed. But there were a few trillion dollars to be made before it all went tits up and then things really got rolling after the wreckage had been cleared. I hope it doesn't pan out that way but it's kind of a natural cycle.
Believe it or not, one of the companies that I'm most worried about is Coinbase.
For example, go look at their employee roster page at the bottom.
https://www.coinbase.com/aboutIn in the past 2 years, I have literally watched that page grow from about 5 employees to what you see now on that page. And they just keep adding more employees.
At the rate they are going, unless something drastically changes I don't think that they are going to have a business model that will support all of that headcount and still make a profit.Not wrong, but not the full picture either:
a) true, it might quite well go down in flames, and that early VC capital will be lost like tears in the rain;
b) then again, it's a (controlled) gamble on their side, similar to early dotcom seed/investments: if it pays off, it'll pay off rather royally, if not, it's a (comparably) minor hit to their total holdings. Which brings me to:
c) on a different scale, through a different aspect of the market, that's similar to the "bet" we're making here as well: most who hold some long-term BTC position do so because of the chance (by his/her best judgement) that there's a big unrealized economical potential for the Blockchain (emphasis on
the Blockchain), which (again, by his/her best judgement) in turn would likely lead to a major appreciation of market value per token.
The flip side of this bet just as the one by VC: it might not work out that way - alternative blockchains might take the lead, public and business interest might stay comparably small (i.e. "solutions looking for problems" turns out to be true and
stay true), etc.
Some people here conveniently ignore the latter point, only going on about the limitless potential. Others pretend there is no potential, only risk, and eventually: doom. Personally, I think it's simply too early to draw either conclusion, 6 years since launch, and ~2 years since VC started pouring in for real.