Photo: iLexx on Envato Elements
Tip of the iceberg
Since the beginning of the year, we have been inundated about falling Bitcoin prices. Many people had sunk their hard earned savings and investments over the last Christmas holiday believing that the price would continue to soar and make them overnight millionaires. Unfortunately, the prices crashed, and a lot of people panic sold and swore off the technology altogether. Honestly, this tip of the iceberg story completely missed the enormous mass sitting under the water.
While people locked in on the cryptocurrency rush, they missed the news that many Fortune 500 companies have been quietly dedicating time and resources to figuring out custody and other regulatory hurdles that currently plague the space. There has also been a slew of Blockchain companies popping up all over the global map at an unprecedented rate. If you take no greater point from my article, realize that the recent fall of Bitcoin has nothing to do with the bigger picture of the opportunities that will be coming in the Blockchain arena.
My prediction
I hope to spark my CUNY peers into taking this opportunity seriously. As a technologist and a person that was around to see the dot-com bubble burst, it would have been impossible to predict where a company like Amazon would have ended up at its infancy. Sure, there were plenty of Pet.com websites that went belly up, but you had a site like Kozmo.com that was a precursor to sites like Uber Eats or Postmates; they just happened to be ahead of their time. I am predicting a similar track for Blockchain companies. There will be a lot of stumbling and falling, but eventually one or two will find their way to the light. Or, there will be a pioneer that sparks the blueprint for another company to follow to their proverbial light.
Creating a legacy
I am sure there are a few that will read this article and say, “All this is great…but this stuff is for the guys in Silicon Valley or Harvard and Yale, I am just trying to get my degree and get on with my life! Leave the trailblazing for other folks.” Let me say, as a person who works in close collaboration with many ivy league institutions, the only thing that separates us is the built-in opportunity and legacy tracks that are embedded in their culture; but this is not something that can’t be overcome with a great idea, hard work, and dedication.
We are indeed in the first inning of a generational technology shift.
Once you do become the next Blockchain billionaire, it would behoove you to set up similar legacy tracks for CUNY students so your peers here could be the new talent for the next set of Blockchain juggernaut companies. We are indeed in the first inning of a generational technology shift.
Let me leave you with three tangible action steps to start you down your Blockchain path:
1) Insert yourself in the flow of Blockchain related news, and take careful note on the projects and technological advancements in the fields that interest you.
2) Investigate and tinker in the Blockchain projects that interest you. In some cases, these companies are so small in size that you may hear from one of the founding members leading the project development team, especially if you comment via their social media feeds.
3) Look for personal opportunities to marry your Blockchain interest to real-world possibilities or problems that you see.
