Sometimes the best way of understanding a trend is to observe the opinion of the people surrounding you.
Let me give an example.
I spend three months on Santorini in the summer of 2016 and despite many prognoses where suggesting a bremain, I spoke to so many English people that were supporting a Brexit. I then ignored many of the mainstream news and was more than sure about that the final result would be a Brexit.
Somehow I have the same experience now with the cryptos.
Recently I heard many people at work talking about cryptocurrencies, not only Bitcoin but also several altcoins. This is for me a serious indicator that proves how the cryptos slowly but stable are becoming mainstream. Personally I believe that the development of cryptos will escalate once even more people realizes that Bitcoin only is one cryptocurrency and that you can select the coin and developers you trust the most.
The mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto did in my opinion not allow the cryptos to become mainstream, but now that people can invest in a coin that real people have created the main fear for investing in Cryptocurrency is gone.
It is all about the coins now!
We are reaching the point now where cryptos are normal to talk about as a mainstream topic, and I think that this is why 2018 is going to be really wild for the cryptos.
Bitcoin is dying and its dragging the entire market down with it. The markets are literally joined at the hip with BTC, and when BTC falls because people have realized how slow and unreliable it is, the larger market ( the new money, people who have been in the game for less than 5 months) panics as they believe that bitcoin IS the market, and if bitcoin fails, then everything else does. This is part of the issue when people like Warren Buffett go on record saying that "Bitcoin is a bubble and will burst" That part is true, for the most part, not many people are willing to pay $36 for a transaction, especially one that takes an hour or more to confirm, and even more so when the developers make little attempt to fix the BTC network -
But when everyday people hear things like this is causes a massive amount of irrational fear...coupled with news from South Korea which was false, as well as news from traditional outlets that claim the market and Bitcoin are constantly dying. We risk going into a free fall in prices within the next few weeks if people don't stop spreading false information. The market dropped by 30% just on false news and an assumption that Korea MIGHT POSSIBLY COULD BE MAYBE be banned from the markets. What would happen if over a 3 day period Fox News and CNN falsely reported that "Bitcoin" was going to be banned in the US, without any proper sources to back it up? The market would implode all based on a rumour. This is why its VERY important to not follow false channels, or people looking to hype coins, its causing the market to expand in a direction that it shouldnt be going, which is the hype, pump, dump and the market is burning scenarios. This has a lasting effect on the human mind, and we'll pay for it eventually.
Great point of view here.
It is true that 95% of all finances is psychology and perception. Once a brand or a system is reliable then the investments are going wild.
If we have a look at the short term, the bleeding markets are mainly caused by the issues with the slow and expensive transactions of Bitcoin.
But I am still optimistic about how well cryptos will perform in the long run, because Bitcoin introduced us to this technology but really is inferior in technology to other Altcoins. The technical gaps of Bitcoin is what gave birth to Ether.
I do believe that a coin such as Ether in the long run will be more sustainable than Bitcoin and people will trust it more.