Here’s an interesting start to a piece on “sludge feed”:
Public interest in cryptocurrencies continues to hit new lows, as revealed by Google search trends for the two top-ranked digital currencies: “Bitcoin” and “Ethereum.” Google Trends utilises numbers to represent search interests that are relative to the highest point on the chart (100) for the given time and region. As of last week, the global frequency of searches for Bitcoin dropped to a value of 8. This is a value last seen in late April of 2017, meaning that the search interest for Bitcoin now sits at an 18-month low.
By the same benchmark Ethereum has dropped from 72 to 9 apparently. So, what does this mean? Well apart from the obvious that no one is searching for bitcoin or ethereum much at the moment it means very little unless you want to get an ethereum or bitcoin story out. I think there are two possibilities to be honest.
Thread 1: No one is searching at the moment because we are all hard at work and have less time to doodle about trying to invest in either of the two cryptos. We could also conclude that people who are interested in this area, have now reached the information saturation point and know pretty much all they need to know in terms of buying a little bitcoin or ethereum and don’t need to search for them specifically anymore. Another is the fact that there could be as many as several thousand cryptocurrencies currently vying for investment that might have sent the searches in a different direction totally. The cryptocurrency tsunami has quenched all but the most desperate newbie thirst. Most of us now are looking deeper into the well, thinking of alternate uses for the technology both the blockchain and cryptocurrency. The legals are increasingly coming up with ways to use DLT for a myriad of smart contracts whilst other folks are becoming more creative in offering coins not as currency per se but utility coins for in game uses as well as membership to consumer groups and portals into chains or countries that need a base membership for their advertisers or businesses plugged in. The one they are staying clear of is the securities token the coin that every country is ready to pounce on particularly the SEC in the US. These tokens much like normal securities are perfectly placed to enable governments to legislate for and get a piece of the pie, something no true crypto-fan wants because that means centralisation, the very antithesis of decentralisation, the goal of Satoshi at the genesis of Bitcoin and Blockchain.
Alternatively.
Thread 2: Maybe no one is searching because summer is over here in the northern hemisphere and we are all back on the treadmill leaving less time to swan around search engines looking things up, except maybe that winter holiday or the Easyjet bargains currently for sale for next summer!
Happy Days
Finboy