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Crypto enthusiasts think investing in crypto right now is like buying the internet in 1996, a massive comparison to the nascent technology. Manhattan is believed to be one of the prime properties; people are spending billions for a piece of land. Imagine if someone had bought the whole island when there was nothing; he would now be the richest man.

Satoshi Nakamoto released the white paper for Bitcoin on January 3, 2009, and the world changed foreverthe people who have invested and held on to their investments since are among the richest now. To better understand how investing in crypto is related to buying the internet, one must consider the era of the mid-1990s.

Facebook (Meta) will arrive after eight years, Apple Inc. is on the verge of bankruptcy, Microsoft is still the king of desktop operating systems, Amazon is a tiny online book store, Netflix has just started a mail-order DVD rental service, and Google is only a research project at Stanford University. Everyone knows where these giants are now, changing the face of technology and getting rich simultaneously.

Crypto is believed to be increasing, giving less time for the advisors to react. Lack of regulatory infrastructure, events like FTX-saga, crypto winter, and Terra ecosystem collapse, along with numerous hacks, exploits, and frauds. These scenarios have dwindled the faith of retail investors, and only high-net-worth individuals or those who are crazy enough to hold on are bullish on crypto.

With the world economy going through its most problematic phase in decades, crypto is a viable option. The main goal behind the emergence of cryptocurrency was to provide an alternative financial system, remove the intermediaries from the equation, and pass the power to the masses. The crypto industry faced its fair share of criticism but is now garnering interest from almost every sector of society.

A tech investor in 1990 would have had Netscape, Lycos, Excite, Microsoft, etc., in the portfolio. But since most are no longer functional, the investment went down the drain. It took years for Google to surpass Microsofts market capital. Currently, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet) or FAANG stocks are believed to be the best for the long term.

Instead of investing in either of the companies, investors would have bought the internet protocol. The base layer on which these companies operate would make the investor immensely powerful if preowned by a person. The companies would either buy the protocol or pay hefty rent to use the technology.

Similarly, investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum would be like investing in internet protocols like TCP/IP and HTTP. These internet standards are considered lower-level standards that facilitate secure data transmission across the internet. Also, they serve as the foundation for complex applications at higher levels.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are similar to these protocols. Even if they are Layer-1 solutions facilitating fund transfer across the network. But they also serve as the foundation for building complex protocols, decentralized applications (dApps), smart contracts, etc.

When the demand for these higher-level complex applications increased with the advancement of the internet, the base layers became extremely valuable and essential. Similarly, with ongoing advancement in the crypto industry, Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchain serve as foundations for current and future applications. Their value might gain immensely in the future.

The protocol standard of Bitcoin and Ethereum would serve as a building block for future applications. Experts argue that Bitcoin might not allow such development, but a similar thing was said for TCP/IP or HTTP at the beginning.

In 1994, the internet was weird and scary; only enthusiastic and tech-savvy people were excited about it. The same is the current scenario for Bitcoin; its weird and scary, and only a select number of people are excited. Since the 1990s, many internet companies have vanished, and only the strongest survived the dot-com bubble bust. Similarly, only select have survived the crypto winter, and they might soon be more than what people believe them to be.

Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.

Excerpt from:

Is Buying Bitcoin, ETH Now Akin to Buying Internet in the 1990s? - The Coin Republic