The cryptocurrency market seems to be a popularity contest

Bitcoin, whose creator’s identity remains a secret, has led to a new wave to millionaires. The cryptocurrency was worth less than 50 cents of a dollar back in 2011. Now, the same unit, is worth more than 6,000 dollars. Despite the efforts of the Chinese government and the top American financial institutions to stop the crypto-trade, said market continues to flourish.

Behavioral economics explain that group conduct affects individual reasoning. Since a new gold rush for virtual money is being experienced, large crowds want to take part in the action. Although the costs of a Bitcoin exceeds the average citizen’s investing and risk tolerance, newer coins are being minted to satisfy the demand.

An ICO means an Initial Coin Offering, which is the virtual equivalent of an IPO, an Initial Public Offering. Both systems are used to raise money out of new idea or concept in the open market. Most ICO’s come from Bitcoin millionaires that understand the blockchain system and have created a parallel platform to Bitcoin with the hopes of reaching at least a percentage of its reach.

Read also: What is blockchain and why does it matter

ICO’s are special because they represent a public platform for social enjoyment. Competition among ICO’s depend on the service they provide, the quality of their code or if a solution to a problem is provided or not. In the end, Bitcoin is famous because it was the first mover as it has no inherent additional value against any ICO.

Like it or not, the new era of peer to peer field sharing, cloud storing, and finances respond to the very Marxist principles. According to the German thinker, a valid societal system requires every citizen to have access to provision goods in order to develop work with social goods, much of what an Universal Basic Income is about, only that it could come from cryptocurrencies.

Electroneum is the first British ICO; its value resides on its low technical knowledge needed to be used as it operates as a cellphone app. Just as in Marx’s wildest dreams, the system allows users to have accepted currency that takes value on other’s expenditure and its very popularity with a very strong branding to the working classes. A cooperative sense that modern capitalism has made people forget as inequality intensifies.

Latin American Post | David Eduardo Rodríguez Acevedo

Copy edited by Susana Cicchetto