Bitcoin's "Hard Fork" - What Does It Mean For Construction?

Bitcoin's "Hard Fork" - What Does It Mean for Construction?

Last week, the long-debated “hard fork” to Bitcoin’s blockchain occurred, creating a fascinating supernova of the stalwart-status cryptocurrency. The hard fork effectively split the most popular and notable cryptocurrency in half. However, in the same way that the physical dynamics during the earliest, sub-second moments our universe can only be described in ways that are completely unique, so to is it unfair to simplify the hard fork into a simple “split” of the cryptocurrency. In reality, it’s much more involved than that, and in ways that are important regarding when, and how blockchain technology will look when it arrives at the door of adjacent markets such as construction.

One reason for the need of further clarification is due to the fact that traditional investment discussions have long since utilized the term “split”, as in a stock split. For this reason, it is easy to meander into these ideas and consider these dynamics when discussing Bitcoin’s hard fork. The difference, however, between the split of stock and this split of a cryptocurrency is analogous to the difference between physics on the plane of Relativity versus the rules on the quantum level. The situation that took place last week involving Bitcoin is less a transference of value operating within an artificially fixed nature, one where the quantity of a stock goes up and the value goes down. Instead, what took place last week was more the exponential expression of volatility within a burgeoning, yet uncertain, economic enterprise. 

That’s one reason why this situation represents something more like a quantum-level split of a stock option. Whereas ideas such as entanglement and tunneling simply don’t compute in the Physics’ world of Relativity, radical upheavals to an institution’s core operating processes aren’t standard operating procedure for a traditional splitting of its publicly traded stocks. On the other hand, what does typically coincide with a radical upheaval to an institution’s core ops, is a perceived loss of direction. In a similar way, the hard fork grabs at the social execution of Bitcoin’s endeavor just as much as its technical protocol. Moreover, as it is the flagship for the industry as a whole, the decision by Bitcoin’s community to make this move affects the rate and magnitude of cryptocurrency’s, and possibly even blockchain technology’s, implementation into the wider arena of financial endeavor.

"The situation that took place last week involving Bitcoin is less a transference of value operating within an artificially fixed nature, one where the quantity of a stock goes up and the value goes down. Instead, what took place last week was more the exponential expression of volatility within a burgeoning, yet uncertain, economic enterprise."

It’s for that reason that the overall takeaway, at least from the perspective of the construction industry, should be that cryptocurrencies have just delayed their arrival onto the stage of mass construction commerce by a scale of five to ten years. This level of volatility creates the uncertainty necessary to cause hesitancy in those looking to invest into the construction of a development or institution based on the value of the cryptocurrency within their portfolio. Where Bitcoin was on the precipice of common vernacular, inching into the common circulation of the mass media, it has now pressed the [reset] button, or at the very least [pause]. Make note that this opinion steers clear of the technical or philosophical merits of the fork, positive or negative. Instead, this approach is to view the hard fork on the merits of market stability and consumer confidence since these are the virtues of an economy that’s ready to invest in construction projects.

The hard fork indicates that the industry is still so young that, in fact, there are still very rudimentary and basic elements of the industry’s philosophy that need solidification; ideas such as its purpose, its arch of endeavoring, and its core strengths. Where once consumers were starting to gain the ability to focus on the tenements of decentralization and security at the expense of transaction speed, and autonomy at the expense of mass proliferation - we’re now left to wonder, “what’s next?” And while it makes for fascinating spectacle and debate, it also makes for an unstable economic climate.  

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